The Subservience of Parliament to The People

Nick Clegg ~ The Observer ~ 17 May 2009

Voters' trust in democracy is shattered. We must restore it. People must feel that they have more power than the politicians, writes the Lib Dem leader

http://www.guardian.co.uk/..

We are in the eye of the perfect storm: an economic crisis followed by a total collapse of public faith in politicians. One way or another, MPs' self-serving expenses will now, thankfully, be changed for good.

But this must be a moment for fundamental change, not just tinkering to eliminate the worst excesses of the past. The uncomfortable truth is that these revelations are merely the tip of an iceberg - our whole political system must be revamped.

Newspapers carried images last week of a dark cloud hanging over the Palace of Westminster. But the cloud metaphor is too generous: politicians are not innocent victims of the weather. We created this cloud ourselves. It rose from the decaying of our democracy.

It is because our political culture is so cut off from proper scrutiny that these Alice in Wonderland expenses rules developed.

For too long, we have believed the hype about the mother of parliaments. The truth is that the pomp and tradition - the tights, gowns and wigs, the silly names - disguise the fact that Parliament has been hollowed out, ignored by an overbearing executive of ministers and civil servants. Last month, I led a campaign for Gurkha rights which secured a landmark defeat of the government. But, absurdly, despite the vote, the government need do nothing to let Gurkha veterans live in Britain if they don't feel like it. Such untrammelled power is staggering when you remember that this government was elected by just 22% of eligible voters.

With so little support, they get unconstrained power: layers of Whitehall secrecy, the most centralised system of governance in Europe, and such a stranglehold on legislation that they have only been defeated five times in 12 years. This is madness.

No wonder, when new democracies were emerging from the Soviet bloc in the 1990s, not one of them copied our model of governance. Our system doesn't work: it doesn't deliver what people want, it doesn't keep government or politicians honest and it doesn't foster the meaningful debate we need.

This has got to change. We should start from first principles. Power belongs to citizens, not politicians. That simple fact must be written down in a short constitution setting out what rights people enjoy and making clear the subservience of Parliament to the people. A constitutional convention, overseen by 100 randomly selected voters, should be convened to draw it up.

We must clean up expenses through Sir Christopher Kelly's independent inquiry. I've written to the other party leaders to urge them to pledge - now - to accept his recommendations in full. In normal times, I wouldn't propose adopting rules I haven't seen, but only by binding our hands will we convince people that we are serious about serving them, not our own interests.

Public outrage at many individual MPs' expense claims has been profound, but there is nothing constituents can do in response. That's why I believe if MPs transgress the rules, there must be a way for their constituents to sack them. I'd create a "recall" system: a small percentage of constituents should be able to force a byelection on any MP suspended for wrongdoing.

We must also cut back the size and power of the Whitehall state, eliminating central bureaucracy and giving new freedoms, including money-raising powers, to local communities. The over-centralised bureaucratic state is the corollary of an overbearing executive and a neutered Parliament. All must change.

Finally, but fundamentally, we need to give people a proper say in who governs the country with fair votes. No government should be able to secure total power with the support of just one out of every five people.
 

Eighteen months ago, I approached Gordon Brown and David Cameron to suggest a constitutional convention to rewrite the rules of our democracy. They didn't take up the offer. From their point of view, this was a logical response: they have a vested interest in the status quo because eventually the electoral merry-go-round will deliver them power. Why break open a cosy arrangement which has served the establishment parties so well over the years?

But we can no longer tolerate such a dysfunctional set-up. We must finally haul our politics from the 19th century into the 21st. After more than a week of scandal, one thing is clearer than ever: the game is up for the old way of doing things. The question now is - do we have the will to start anew?

Above at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/17/nickclegg

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