Jo Swinson MP has called for less talk and more action from the Conservative Party on proposals for public involvement in making laws.

Speaking at the Conservative Conference this week, William Hague announced his plans for a ‘Public Reading Stage’ for proposed legislation. The idea is that this would enable the public to become involved in the process of making laws by using an online system to make comments and spot potential problems. And it’s all a part of the Tory “Google Government” idea that I’ve covered for the Voice in a review of Cameron’s speech to the LGA earlier this year, and in the debate over whether Web 2.0 represents value for money for taxpayers.

However, the proposal for a public reading stage of new bills is not new, and earlier initiatives attempting to introduce a similar system have received little support from Conservative MPs. In December last year, Jo Swinson tabled a Parliamentary Motion supporting the Free Our Bills Campaign which seeks to reform the way Bills are published electronically to make it easier for the public to scrutinise them.

The campaign calls for the public to be able to reject or rewrite clauses of a Bill, just as in the US ‘Mixedink’ website on which William Hague’s proposal is based. The motion has been signed by 83 MPs – but only 10 of the signatories are Conservative. And none of them is William Hague.

Jo’s view?

Whilst it is positive that the Tories are now considering Parliament’s need to engage with the public online, there is little evidence yet that this is more than empty rhetoric.

The Free Our Bills campaign, which is run by the excellent team of volunteers at My Society, has long been campaigning for measures which would do exactly what William Hague is suggesting, and yet only 10 Conservative MPs have signed my motion supporting it. If Conservative MPs really mean what they say about moving politics into the 21st Century then I would urge them to sign the motion in support of the Free Our Bills campaign.

You can hear more of Jo Swinson’s views on campaigning on the internet in our podcast “Beyond Twitter” – a recording of our fringe meeting at the 2009 Bournemouth Lib Dem conference