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Sunday, May 16th, 2010

Reform

May 16th, 2010 @ 11:32 | permalink
Filed under: Politics

Dear Messrs. Cameron and Clegg,

Firstly may I congratulate you both on the formation of this coalition? Although I did not vote for the candidates that either of you put up in my constituency of Southend West and I can't say that I was particularly enamoured with either of your parties throughout the campaign I am, after the events of the past few days and having read your coalition agreement cautiously optimistic as to the arrangement that you have come to blending as it seems the better bits of each party's manifesto commitments.

One of the most bandied words since the result of the general election became apparent in the early hours of last Friday morning has been 'reform'. Fair enough. But how far will that reform go? The Labour years saw some partial reforms of our constitutional processes but these were half-hearted and mostly aimed at appeasing the back benchers and anyone they depended upon for votes rather than being born out of a genuine desire to change things. The end result is a situation which many in the largest part of the Union believe to be unfair to them.

There are many things in our political and constitutional process that need to be carefully looked at. Some we knew about and some have been thrown into sharp relief by events of election night as I'm sure Mr Clegg will no doubt be aware. Yet I believe that we should look at the entire system. We may find that we don't need to change some bits of it but how will we know unless they are subjected to a proper review?

Some things you have pledged to deal with as part of the coalition agreement, those being:

• Fixed term parliaments
• Voting reform
• Equal sized constituencies
• Right of recall
• The status of the House of Lords
• An answer to the 'West Lothian' question
• Electoral fraud
• Lobbying
• Party funding
• Devolution

There is indeed much in there to like and it is nice to see you have already made a start in implementing them. I wonder though if you are perhaps not rushing in without doing a proper consultation exercise as there are other things that I would urge you to consider:

• A referendum on our continuing membership of the EU. A hot potato to be sure but it is an issue that frustrates a great part of the electorate and may earn you a considerable amount of goodwill.
• Statutory Instruments and Enabling Legislation. These were well used by the previous administration to expand the power of government and pass though items without recourse to the Commons.
• A reduction in the number (or preferably elimination) of non-governmental organisations funded by taxpayers money.
• Stop guillotining debates. Allow free and open discussion on a bill without imposing a time limit and accept that government doesn't always know best.
• Scrap the whip system. Too many MPs from all parties simply come across as lobby fodder that simply do what they are told in the hope that they will be rewarded with a junior government/select committee position.
• Sunset clauses to ensure that bills have to be reviewed every so often.
• More time for members bills. Governments should not have a monopoly on Commons time.

In the end I do not believe you are being radical enough in your plans. Go for full devolution: give the 4 countries of the Union complete and total fiscal and political independence from each other, leaving only a light top layer - say an elected senate - to deal with matters (such as defence) that cannot be devolved downwards.

I posit that full devolution would mean an answer to the 'West Lothian' question as no MP from the government of one part of the Union would be in a government in another part of the Union, would mean that a layer of government would be removed from Wales and Scotland (no doubt saving a large amount of money and perhaps dealing the Nationalist movements once and for all) and that the House of Lords could morph into the elected senate.

I won't claim to have all of the answers but nor do I believe that the two of you do either. I would like to see all of the points above - and any that other politicians or members of the public have - looked at, explored and if necessary referendums offered so that the public has the chance to have their say.

If you want a new, open style of government then I trust that you will involve us, the public in this exercise. Otherwise you will be no better than your predecessors.

Yours sincerely,
Clarissa Clement (Miss)