Date published: 2009/05/26
The BBC says:
David Cameron has pledged to bring "big change" to politics, including looking at introducing fixed term Parliaments.
A Tory government would restore "real people power" through a "radical" redistribution of power from Westminster, he said in a speech.
But he ruled out a switch from the current first-past-the-post electoral system to proportional representation.
...
"I believe there is only one way out of the national crisis that we face, we need a massive, sweeping, radical redistribution of power," he said in a speech in Milton Keynes."I'm making clear that big change and a new politics is exactly what people can expect from a Conservative government.
"We will begin a massive redistribution of power in our country, from the powerful to the powerless, from the political elite to the man and the woman in the street."
...
A Conservative government would ask the Boundary Commission to look at reducing the House of Commons by, initially 10% and make sure constituencies were the same size, he said.He also suggested legislation was published online in a more digestible way, Parliamentary proceedings put on YouTube - and said people could get "text alerts" when issues they are interested in are debated in the Commons.
The expenses of all public servants paid more than £150,000 a year would be put online - as would all public spending over £25,000.
...
Other issues the party will look at include possible curbs on the whipping of votes - when MPs come under pressure to toe the party line - in considering bills line-by-line at the committee stage.MPs would also be handed the power of deciding the timetabling of bills and backbenchers would get powers to choose the chairmen and members of select committees.
The use of the royal prerogative which allows the prime minister, in the name of the monarch, to make major decisions without the backing of Parliament, would be limited.
Cameron is just the latest politician to try and divert attention away from the parliamentary expenses scandal to allegedly look at the larger picture. But the expenses scandal has nothing to do with the larger picture. It is just that an expenses system was set in place which encouraged corruption.
At least most of the proposals given by Cameron make some sense, but they are not exactly revolutionary, and it will also be interesting to see how much Cameron actually does once he's in power (talk, as usual, being cheap).
On the other hand, what is ridiculous about the Cameron speech is the claim that his proposals in any way "begin a massive redistribution of power in our country, from the powerful to the powerless, from the political elite to the man and the woman in the street". His proposals just involve shuffling power amongst the political elite. Under the Tories the powerless will continue to remain where the powerless always have been, i.e. powerless. The Eton/Oxbridge composition of the Tory cabinet is the reality, not Cameron's rhetoric. Privilege trumps all in Britain, as it always has, and this is especially true under the Tories, the ultimate party of privilege.
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