Constitutional & Gov. Reform

Constitutional & Government Reform

Conservative & Labour

Liberal Democrats

During the past two decades both the Conservatives and Labour party's have formed governments without ever winning the majority of the vote. Britain's centralised and secretive system allows extreme ideas like the Poll Tax and the Criminal Justice Act to go ahead with minimal scrutiny.

Britain remains the only Western democracy without a freedom of information act. The Conservatives have concentrated more power in Whitehall and unelected, unaccountable quangos.

The Conservatives oppose reform - oppose fair voting, devolution and freedom of information. They prefer to concentrate power at Whitehall.

The current Labour government was also elected with a majority of seats in Parliament without a majority of the votes. Tony Blair criticise Tory sleaze without tackling his own party's rotten borough councils. Labour are also stalling on their promises to introduce a fairer voting system and a Freedom of Information Act.

Liberal Democrats believe that the political system leaves politicians out of touch with the electorate. We would:

Entrench a new Bill of Rights within a written constitution, upheld by a supreme court.
Introduce a Freedom of Information Act to make governments more accessible and less secretive.
Establish regional parliaments throughout the United Kingdom.
Remodel the House of Lords as a democratic second chamber, representing the interests of Britain's regions and nations.
Make moderate state funding available to political parties conditional upon the publication of full accounts.
Introduce proportional representation for all elections, using the Single Transferable Vote system.
Consider proposals to allow non-parliamentarians to become government ministers.
Use citizen's initiated referendums to give people more say in policy making.
Parliamentary business needs to be re-organised to allow fuller consultation, more effective scrutiny of bills and a better use of MP's time.
Strengthen the ability of MPs to make the government answerable for it's actions.
To enhance the role of select committees in ensuring the accountability of departments.
Overhaul the process for scrutinising European legislation so that decisions from the EU are more transparent and Parliaments role is more clearly defined.
Improve the quality of legislation by better pre-legislation consultation and the use of mechanisms such as the special standing committee procedure where evidence is taken before legislation is passed.
Ensure that the Civil Service Code of Conduct should become statutory to ensure that it's principles have full legal backing. This would be achieved by a Civil Service Act aimed at maintaining the political neutrality of the Civil Service.
Create a Independent National Statistical Service. In recent years this service has come under intense scrutiny after ministerial interference.

Facts & Figures.

In the 1997 General election Labour polled 43.2% of the vote, but managed to win 63.4% of the seats in Parliament.
Five years earlier in the 1992 General Election the Conservatives polled 41.9% of the vote, but managed to win 51.6% of the seats.

Questions & Answers.

Q.
PR leads to an unstable government, where small parties yield too much power in shady deals to form coalition governments with larger parties. This leads to political and economic instability?.
A.
No. Under the present system back-benchers and factions within a party come to dominate the party - like the right-wing Tory Euro-sceptics. PR means that coalition deals are made public and third parties have to be more voter-sensitive than back-benchers.

Q.
Liberal Democrats would abolish the monarchy?.
A.
Liberal Democrats voted not to abolish the monarchy in September 1994. The Liberal Democrats are not anti-monarchy, we are pro-democracy. A written constitution would prevent the monarchy becoming embroiled in political decisions.

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