Parliament
The time has come for Parliament to be reformed. We are supposed to live in the oldest democracy in the world. In reality our parliamentary system is deeply undemocratic. In the House of Commons we have a first past the post system. Because of the way the constituencies are formed it is possible to win a general election with far less that an overall majority of the vote. In fact the last time a part won more than 50% was in the election straight after the 2nd World War.
If that wasn’t bad enough the House of Lords has people there who are there because of their birth, hereditary peers, and people who are there because of their positions in various churches, Bishops; the rest are appointed by politicians. Regrettably many members of the House of Lords are there because they have done something to help the government of the day. On many occasions appointments have been made after substantial donations have been made to a particular party.
This brings us to another problem; funding of political parties. All parties in the UK are run on similar grounds. The Labour party has large donations from the Trades Unions, it also has attracted a number of large donators although it remains to be seen whether these sums of money will still arrive in the future. The Conservative and LibDems are run on very similar lines; membership subscriptions and gifts, some large and some small.
It has been suggested that each party should be given public money to conduct their elections; however it would seem that the general public doesn’t like that idea at all. The current is not perfect, however it is difficult to see what other system would work with public acceptance.
Anyone with any ideas?
In an ideal world the NDP would like to see us adopt a policy where every one had to vote. This is done in Australia, where it is illegal not to vote. The turnout for general elections is never less than 99.5%. Unfortunately, because most people in the UK believe that voting has no effect on their lives, we would be almost impossible to adopt the Australian policy.
We need to increase the number of votes cast, especially amongst the younger members of community, who, mainly show total apathy towards any politician and their policies.
Proportional representation must be the way forward. There are various systems and they all work. OK we might end up with coalition government, but so what. There are good and bad in all parties. With our present system there is no room for talented people from the smaller parties to have any real influence. This is born out if you think about Vince Cable; a man who has speaking for months about the excesses in our financial systems and has spoken clearly and precisely about the remedies he would in place. However being a LibDem means that he will never be in power, unless proportional representation is adopted as soon as possible.
If you think about it Germany has had a coalition government for many years and they seem to have fairly well. On the other hand so has Italy had a coalition government for as long as anyone can remember and they haven’t done so well.
The NDP believes that we need less not more law. This government believes that they have to control our lives, which has inspired them to pass 100s of unnecessary laws. We need to get back to reality we need to be governed not molly coddled. The NDP would cut back the time that parliament sits to three days a week and commit to not introducing any new outside of any manifesto promise.
Regardless of what we end up with, the most important requirement of any government must be to reform the way MPs are remunerated. There must be complete transparency in respect of expenses and allowances. The allowances must be published and the use of those allowances published.
Most people seem to think an upper house works; it is able to examine legislation in a much more controlled and quieter environment. This upper house should be elected and consist of 142 members. Each county and London would have two representatives. If Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland was to leave the United Kingdom then the number of representatives would be reduced accordingly.
The duties for the members of this house would be clearly defined as would their pay and allowable expenses.
Elections should take place at the same time as the elections for the House of Commons. Again prospective candidates should be elected on a proportional representation basis.
Parliament needs to come back to the people; for far too long governments have ignored the House of Commons. It is unusual for this government to make a policy announcement to the House without first leaking it to their favoured journalists who are then able to put favourable spin on the forthcoming statement. If the police believe that Damian Green committed and arrestable offence by allegedly leaking sensitive documents then the police should be investigating every government statement that has been previously leaked. The only problem with that would be that they would be so occupied that we would end up with a criminal free-for-all.
The select committee system is a start, however they need more power and they should have ordinary members of the public sitting on them. Perhaps they could be run a little like the jury system. The committees should have the power to demand that ministers sit before them and explain policy and their effects and if necessary should be able to ask MP’s to back disciplinary action if it’s thought necessary.
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