Saturday, February 06, 2010
David Cameron & Reforming Parliament
David Cameron has just sent out this video of him talking about how Parliament should be reformed. He reveals that Gordon Brown has blocked Tony Wright's suggested reforms. He suggests that Tuesday's vote on AV should be scrapped and so should the half term holiday. Instead, he says, parliament should spend the week debating how it should be reformed. He also suggests that the powers of the whips should be reduced.
He'll be expanding on all these issues in a speech on Monday.
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Indeed .... if Parliament is to be reformed it should not be by diktat from Brown who concocts yet another rof his crazy notions whilst Parliament itself has been packed off on yet another pointless holiday.
Gordon Brown has not blocked the Wright Committee's recommendations. They are being debated on 22 February. The Leader of the House said at Business Questions on Thursday:
"I would make two points on how we are dealing with the Wright Committee recommendations. I have said at business questions that we hope the House will agree to more than 20 provisions in the report, and we intend to table them for approval after a full day's debate on 22 February. If we can approve some, if not all, of the motions that I will table then, that will be a good start. I will bring back those that, because Members object to them, are not approved. We will lay amendable motions, and then the House will vote on them.
"As there are more than 20 areas of consideration on which we propose to move forward, it will be helpful if some of them, if not all, can be dealt with after a full day's debate. We can get the debate dealt with so that the House can be heard, and then if there are motions to which there is no objection, they can go through straightforwardly by agreement. On some issues there will undoubtedly not be agreement, and those will then have to come back to the House in motions that are amendable and can be voted on.
"The right hon. Gentleman talks as though there were unanimity in the House on all the Wright reform issues, and as though somehow, only the Government stood in the way. He is fostering that impression, but it is a misapprehension. As shadow Leader of the House, he should know that on some substantial matters that the Government are in favour of, there is division in the House. For example, we support the idea of secret ballots for the election of Chairmen of Select Committees.
He will know that last week the Liaison Committee was split down the middle on that, and voted to support it by only seven to six. So I would be grateful if he did not purvey the view that he and the whole House are reformers, and the Government are standing in their way. That is not true and does not reflect all the progress that the House has been able to make in the past 13 years on initiatives introduced by previous Leaders of the House. Reform has happened, and further reform, with the House's support, will be forthcoming under the Wright Committee recommendations."
I'm loving the black shirt and casual mug. Brings a whole new meaning to "Tea with Mussolini".
Cameron = Clegg Lite
I seem to remember something about canceling MPs' summer holidays to reform parliament. Cameron thinks they should cancel half-term!
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