As if my shopping list for Nick Clegg’s priorities wasn’t already long enough, I also think this whole expenses furore is the absolutely perfect hook for the root and branch electoral reform the Liberal Democrats have been advocating since the dawn of recorded time.
It’s maybe not one for immediate execution, while public anger abates and basic reparations and undertakings are being made (see my previous post).
But the kind of systemic corruption that has been exposed over the past week is clearly linked to our topsey-turvey electoral and constitutional system. Cicero explains in more detail, and I see the Speccie are making the same point. Their main call is for Clegg to lead the assassination squad of Michael Martin, which I don’t happen to think is necessarily essential in itself, but as part of a much wider seizing of the reform initiative it makes a lot of sense.
We’ve been struggling to make PR sexy for years – are we ever going to get a better shot than this?
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Something I’ve been banging on about for a bit: we desperately need an electoral system that allows any MP to be kicked out. Not FPTP and not the dreadful list system.
STV allows a voter to say “I’ll to vote Conservative, but not for THAT Conservative candidate.”
Of course, PR alone would be a disaster – it would need to come hand in hand with reform of the way government works to get past all the rules and conventions based on the assumption that one party will nearly always win a majority.
Spot on idea Alix. Lets push on this one!
Exactly right Alix, and we are not the only ones thinking along these lines, I have heard several commentators making similar noises.
And what about the “Lords”?
Disgust with the whole political system is the perfect backdrop for absolute reform.
A modern, understandable, equal and accessable system could restore public confidence and increase the ‘attractiveness’ of politics.
Ie:
Abolishing the Lords
Seperation of Church and State
Losing the FPTP system
Abolishing archaic conventions (black rod ceremony, mandatory prayers, ‘naming’ members, lack of discussion about the monarchy in the house, the oath, archaic language etc…
And of course the establishment of a written constitution, with an impeachment -type process for removing members and a code of practice which elected members could not ignore.
Yes! I was just thinking that as I was walking the dog before. This whole scandal has shown to everybody the paucity of the current system and the fact that about 70% of MPs are in safe seats has massively contributed to this problem.
Has anybody done an analysis on a correlation between the safeness of seats and the amount claimed? Could yield some interesting results.
I agree that we may never get a better chance than the aftermath of this and the public is ready for and receptive to change. The tired old canards that will be trotted out to defend the two party fiefdom will not resonate as well as previously.
If nothing else, this demonstrates that once public opinion is fixed on something change becomes inevitable.
BTW, I have just contacted Malcolm from “Make Votes Count” to see what thoughts he has about this and drawn his attention to this thread.
I’m not sure if PR will ever be “sexy” but it certainly needs to be shown to be workable and understandable to those outside the chattering classes. At the last Scottish elections we had FPTP, STV and party list on two ballot papers….
PR yes – but perhaps just good old STV for all elections.
Regards
Mr Quist
Would you want voters to be able to remove MPs at special elections or just in the general election?
This is totally spot on. We Lib Dems should be shouting about (a) courageous MPs like Norman Baker who have been campaigning on MPs expenses for years and (b)the need to reform voting.
By the way, do we have a policy about voting on Thursdays? It is totally mad to hold it then and not at the weekend.
I have had a crack at a quick statistical analysis of this to see if there is a correlation between safeness of seat and likelihood of being involved in this scandal.
I think I have found one.
Matthew Norman has been good on this in the Indy several times.
But most still don’t get how deep the grounds of fury are – imho anyway.