Expenses scandal could be reform catalyst

Published on Friday 22 May 2009 23:38

THE Westminster expenses scandal should be used as a springboard for major constitutional reform in the UK, campaigners have said.

While there have been calls from all sides from the expenses system to be overhauled, reformers have told The Scotsman they believe the time is right for the government to push through radical changes to Britain's democracy.

Calls for a smaller House of Commons are gaining support, and Conservative leader David Cameron has already pledged to slash the size of Parliament by at least 10 per cent.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has called this a once-in-a-generation moment to change politics for good.

Electoral reform, an elected House of Lords and strengthening the power of parliament over the executive are all calls made by campaigners.

A source close to the Prime Minister confirmed "we are up for the debate", but admitted there was no firm timetable for reforms. Cabinet modernisers want to see a reformed party funding system, including caps on donations, an elected House of Lords and a wider range of candidates.

Another government source said more immediate reforms considered include slashing the number of ministers on the payroll and giving backbenchers more power over the configuration of select committees.

The Conservatives have slapped down such an initiative as a "talking shop" and instead called for an immediate general election.

Mr Cameron has set out a series of proposals. Among the more radical is a plan to give every petition which carries a signature of 100,000 parliamentary time for debate.

People would also have powers to instigate referenda if enough were behind one.

Canon Kenyon Wright, who led the Scottish Constitutional Convention that paved the way for the creation of the Scottish Parliament, wants the UK to become more federalist.

"Rather than power being devolved from Westminster, there should be a principle of subsidiarity," he said. The people, rather than parliament, should be sovereign, he added.

Historian Dr David Starkey has said the House of Commons was "rotten" and should be drastically remodelled, perhaps along American lines. He proposes an elected House of Lords, a directly elected prime minister and a Cabinet that would sit separately from Parliament.

"It is not the case of putting a horrid Humpty Dumpty together again. Instead we need fundamental constitutional change," he told the BBC.

Dr Starkey has also controversially called for a cull of Scots and Welsh MPs in a slimmed-down parliament.

Contenders for the role of Speaker have also been outlining their ideas. Frank Field, a Labour MP who is backed by many Tories for the role, called for parliament to be given power over the timetable for legislation. He is also campaigning for MPs to be able to elect select committee chairmen.

Meanwhile, a group of independents have formed the Jury Team. They campaign to tear down the party system that they feel has a stranglehold over Westminster and Brussels.

Alan Wallace, a Jury Team candidate for the European Parliament, said: "We need to get away from people being selected for safe seats from a favoured candidates list and instead let the public have more say on who should stand."

The Jury Team also champions a three-term limit for MPs.

An ICM poll for the Guardian yesterday revealed 27 per cent of voters were already planning to support a minority party at next month's European elections.

Tinkering won't help, radical change might

THESE are times for passion, daring and imagination about politics. The British political system, and with it the story of Britain, is broken. The old and new Conservative and Labour accounts, the old and new Establishments, are over.

It is good that lots of ideas are flooding forth on constitutional reform and remaking our politics and democracy. Yet, while proportional representation, an elected second chamber, and more power for back-benchers, are all needed, they miss an important point.

This is a crisis of the whole British system of government, the state, and how Britain understands itself. The political crisis is interconnected with the economic crisis and the Thatcher and Blair eras of preaching a narrow notion of freedom.

Two principles for reform follow. First, constitutional change cannot be some chattering class exercise perfecting the electoral system. What is required is to link ideas of democratic renewal to the kind of society people want to live in.

New radical ideas will have to be encouraged not just about professional politics, but how we run organisations, finance business, address ways workers can run where they work, and change corporate governance. This will involve taking on vested interests.

Secondly, there is no point engaging in micro-reforms without spending time trying to create new philosophies and ideologies. After socialism and the free-marketeers there is a huge vacuum which is just waiting to be filled. Life after the bubble will surely be interesting.

&149 Gerry Hassan is an author, researcher and commentator.

MPs should look north for inspiration

THE House of Commons has moved to end the culture of greed uncovered over the last fortnight. But it will need to do more to restore its reputation.

One weakness revealed is that nobody has the job of speaking in the media on behalf of the House of Commons.

This needs to be changed. As well as keeping MPs in order, the Speaker should also act as the ambassador for all MPs, promoting the work of the Commons – and, when necessary, defending it.

This is what we have come to expect of Presiding Officers of the Scottish Parliament.

But the House of Commons is also a place of quaint customs.

The Commons cannot afford to give the impression of being a place apart.

We can also ask bigger questions, such as how MPs get elected in the first place.

If voters could choose between candidates of the same party – as they can in Scotland's local elections – then no MP would have a safe seat.

'WIDE-RANGING REFORM IS UNLIKELY'

THERE'S NO DOUBT THAT Westminster has been seriously shaken by the events of the last few weeks, but wide-ranging constitutional reform is unlikely any time soon. The Labour government is too weak to implement it, and by next year, a newly-elected Conservative government will be under little pressure to do so. With new faces at the top, voters tend to feel things have changed, even when the same structural problems remain.

The current crisis will have salutary effects, and not just on MPs' expenses. Westminster is moving towards a more transparent style of operation, while its traditional arrogance towards the devolved institutions has been shaken; what David Cameron has called the "culture of denial" about devolution is over, and I predict a new phase of dialogue among Britain's parliamentary institutions, about what each can learn from the others.

&#149 Joyce McMillan is a commentator and broadcaster and was Convener of the Scottish Civic Forum