The BBC has the story:
There’s an increasingly organised group of senior figures, ex-cabinet ministers and possible future Speakers of the Commons. They meet in distant committee rooms for dry sounding seminars about constitutional reform, and grumble about the wavering of Gordon Brown’s commitment to giving parliament more power.
In a hung parliament they might seize their moment….it’s certainly being discussed behind the scenes, and Lord Paul Tyler, a former Liberal Democrat Shadow Leader of the Commons, is one of the unlikely Che Guevaras in a sort of Parliamentary Liberation Army…its demands would include the a Commons vote to confirm any government and Prime Minister that emerged from coalition talks, direct elections among MPs for members of select committees (something which would horrify the whips) and clipping the wings of the government business managers who currently decide what the Commons discusses and votes on.



3 Comments
Err, doesn’t the likening seem to be a bit far-fetched?
And to call MNF Paul “rag-tag” is a bit odd.
Tony Greaves
Certainly a vote on the formation of a government and elections to select committees would be a good idea. I’d go further and require appointments of ministers to be confirmed by the relevant select committee and require any reorganisation of government departments to go through parliament as well.
The splitting of the Home Office may have been welcome as might the division of Education but it cannot be right that the PM can just create and abolish ministries at a whim.