The Independent reports that Nick Clegg has called for this week’s Queen’s Speech to be scrapped and replaced by an emergency programme of reform designed to “clean up politics once and for all”.
He says that the ceremony will be a “waste of everyone’s time” as Parliament will only sit for another 70 days before it is dissolved for the general election expected in the spring.
He says: “The Queen’s Speech will be dressed up as the way to ‘build Britain’s future’ when it will be little more than a rehearsal of the next Labour Party manifesto, an attempt to road-test policy gimmicks to see whether they might save this Government’s skin.
“It is a waste of everyone’s time, and should be cancelled in favour of an emergency programme of political reform. That is the only job this rump of a Parliament is fit for.”
The paper reports that Nick Clegg wants the Commons to agree an action plan to reform Parliament in the few months until MPs leave for the election battle. He says that the first step would be to approve proposals to be set out by the Public Administration Committee to curb the power of the Commons whips and give more influence to backbench MPs. That should be followed, Mr Clegg says, by moves to introduce fixed-term parliaments, agree a code of conduct for election candidates, sack corrupt MPs, make the House of Lords fully-elected and reform the Commons voting system.
Related posts:
Recent comments