Nick Clegg has written in the Guardian today that politicians should be barred from taking their summer holidays until the constitutional crisis sparked by the expenses row is resolved and “every nook and cranny” of the political system is reformed.
He has set out a week-by-week plan to achieve the “total reinvention of British politics”.
In the first two weeks parliament would agree to accept the recommendations of the review into MPs’ expenses and allowances by the standards watchdog, draw up a bill to allow for the recall of errant MPs, and impose a £50,000 cap on individual donations to political parties in any year.
Constitutional reforms would then be introduced:
• By week three legislation would be passed to introduce fixed parliamentary terms of four years from 2010, denying the prime minister the right to name the date of general elections.
• By week four the new Commons Speaker would convene all-party talks to introduce a series of changes to parliamentary procedure that would be agreed by day 100. These include handing MPs the right to decide the parliamentary timetable and giving MPs a greater chance to scrutinise government spending and subject ministers to confirmation hearings.
• By weeks four to five parliament would pass legislation to allow a referendum to be held on electoral reform – the alternative vote-plus system proposed by the late Lord Jenkins – that would be held on day 100.
• By weeks six to seven parliament would pass legislation to replace the House of Lords with a wholly elected senate.
The Liberal Democrats have also launched an on-line petition calling on voters to take back power and reform politics for good. The petition demands the right for voters to sack their MP, to know that MPs cannot be bought off by party donors, to have the right to find out what the government is doing and to cut down their power, and to ensure that their vote counts.
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