Democracy Updated

Hi, before today's post on the environment, I just wanted to update a post from a few days back on the policies on democracy. In it I may have implied that the Lib Dems, unlike the others, weren't advocating a system for direct recall of MPs by their constituents as I had not seen this in any of their policy summaries. I was somewhat disappointed to find it was in their manifesto yesterday. I'm still opposed to this policy and believe that what people need is to feel they can trust their MPs, not that they have to police themselves. The key issue is that none of MPs caught up in the expenses scandal were found guilty of gross misconduct by parliament, even though some are facing criminal charges. Therefore by most of the policies, they wouldn't be able to be recalled anyway - its a fake power, in effect. The real issue is that parliament should have the will and the power to take action itself and dismiss MPs in these circumstances. I still think the Lib Dems are the ones who most advocating more rather than less power for parliament, so I'd still go with them on this issue, only with slightly more reservations.

Also, the conservatives policy was largely missing from what I had posted, so here it is from their own website:

• Strengthen Parliament so that it acts as a proper check on the power of ministers;
• Reduce the number of MPs by 10 per cent as part of a wider series of reforms to cut the cost of politics;
• Ensure each vote has equal value by reducing the wide discrepancies between constituency electorate sizes;
• Restore the integrity of the ballot and give voters the right to kick out MPs guilty of wrongdoing;
• Introduce new rules on lobbying and tougher restrictions on ex-Ministers;
• Seek an agreed long-term settlement on Party funding, including an across-the-board cap on donations as part of a comprehensive package of reform. This will mark the end of the big donor era and the sleaze it has sometimes entailed;
• Work to secure a consensus for a substantially elected House of Lords; and
• Address the West Lothian Question by ensuring that legislation on devolved issues that only affects England, or England and Wales, can only be passed with the consent of MPs from England, and where applicable Wales.

I don't think there's anything here that isn't in the other policies already commented on. The electoral reform doesn't go far enough for me and parliament needs to strengthening to keep all MPs in check, not just ministers, but other than that its pretty reasonable.