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Strengthening Parliament

Posted by Cynic101 on Thursday, 22 February 2007 04:49:52

In 2000 The Committee to Strengthen Parliament led by Professor the Lord Norton of Louth reported to William Hague, then Leader of the Opposition, with its findings about the decline of Parliament and recommendations on how to strengthen it as an institution.

The report included some interesting proposals, including various suggestions to strengthen committees and their ability to scrutinise legislation, to allow for greater scrutiny of EU proposals in Westminster, to deal with the ubiquitous problem of the West Lothian question, and to make government generally more accountable to Parliament - the ideas behind these suggestions being to strengthen Parliament and attempt to restore public trust in it.

Considering that the present government has ridden roughshod over Parliament for the last decade, alienating more and more voters of all political persuasions and eroding its institutional and democratic importance, would it not perhaps be time to re-examine the suggestions of the Norton report to see if its suggestions could help repair some of this damage under a Conservative government?

Shortly after the report's publication, Mr Hague said

"[The] future of Parliament does not belong to one political leader or one political party - it belongs to all parliamentarians, who hold our democracy in trust, and who, I believe, owe a responsibility to pass on to future generations a better and more effective Parliament than the one which they inherited."

(Taken from the Conservative party website )

Mr Cameron, given that this present government has failed in that responsibility, would you please look again at the suggestions of the Norton report and consider taking the bold step of restoring the image and functionality of Parliament that the present government has so carelessly disregarded?

(For those interested, the full report is still hosted on the Conservative party website, at http://www.conservatives.com/pdf/norton.pdf )

Post edited by Cynic101 on Monday, 05 March 2007 16:46:18

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Posted by Votedave on Thursday, 22 February 2007 18:05:21

Agreed.

Posted by DaveGould on Thursday, 22 February 2007 19:23:58

Had a quick scan through the Norton Report. Don't disagree with any of it, but I'm not that familiar with the workings of Committees.

Not only are Committees chosen by the Govt and strongly biased towards them, they get completely ignored like everyone else.

Nothing will be achieved until Govt MPs can be persuaded to vote with their conscience more frequently, or unless Govts can be limited to majorities around 30 via PR.

Posted by Phaedrus on Thursday, 22 February 2007 20:20:47

As the office of Prime Minister continues to move rapidly towards a presidential status we as a nation certainly need to strengthen the regulating power of parliament as a whole. The position of PM has become too strong and the will of that incumbent now has the power to steamroll through its convictions, to the detriment of democracy in this country. We desparately need reform of the relative positions of the PM and parliament.

Posted by davetheslave on Thursday, 22 February 2007 20:24:07

Interestingly enough, Gordon Brown's current troubles could force him into a pact with the Lib Dems in order to cling on to power. The most likely price for such a deal would be the introduction of PR, so paradoxically, Labour's lust for power could end up strengthening parliamentary democracy.

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