Conservatives today launch the Ethics and Accountability section of the ‘Fixing our Broken Politics’ chapter of the Conservative Party’s draft manifesto. The section outlines plans to clean up politics by: · Insisting that MPs’ expenses are published online, and supporting the implementation of the independent proposals to clean up the House of Commons.
· Bringing in a power of ‘recall’ to allow electors to kick out MPs, a power that will be triggered by proven wrongdoing.
· Introducing a Parliamentary Privilege Act to make clear that the rules of parliamentary privilege cannot be abused by MPs to evade justice.
· Tightening up rules to ensure that ex-ministers are banned from lobbying government for two years after leaving office.
· Cutting the perks and bureaucracy associated with Parliament to save up to £120 million a year. We will cut the pay of Ministers by five per cent and freeze it for the rest of the Parliament, and cut the number of MPs by ten per cent.
Commenting, Conservative Party Chairman, Eric Pickles said: “Labour has devalued our political currency and left the country struggling to pay down a massive democratic deficit.
“People across the country have become increasingly disillusioned and angry with our political system, so fixing our Broken Politics is essential if we are to restore people’s faith and trust in us.
“Brown’s pathetic attempts to distract people from the real problems by flirting with electoral reform simply won’t do. We can’t go on like this. Conservatives will transform our political culture through a radical redistribution of power to strengthen the power of families and individuals to bring change to their own lives and communities.”
Of course, all of this is academic without the fulfilment of David Cameron's promise of ‘a massive, sweeping, radical redistribution of power: from the state to citizens; from the government to parliament; from Whitehall to communities. From Brussels to Britain; from judges to the people; from bureaucracy to democracy’.
Broken politics cannot by fixed with an abracadabra any more than bread can be made flesh by hocus pocus.
