And what we've seen so far gives rise to some cause for concern. We are told of a new law to imprison MPs for a year where expenses are fiddled. This is just another "we must be seen to pass some new (and useless) law" response. The criminal law caters perfectly well already for the likes of Morley, Chaytor and Moran. Prosecutions could successfully be made under the existing Theft Act and the Fraud Act. The bigger worry is the malaise is such that there is little public confidence the Police and the CPS will take any action and Concerned Citizens may well take the lead with private prosecutions.
We need to move towards proper reforms:
- Get rid of all personal type expenses and reset the salary at an appropriate level;
- Look again at reform to the House of Lords, introducing elected members in whole or part;
- Look again at party funding and impose a maximum limit of £50,000 per person or company (including unincorporated and every other form of association);
- Reduce the number of MPs - to 500 and no more - on "fair votes" boundaries;
- A recasting of responsibility and accountability towards the citizen - e.g. merge quangos into local authorities or back to Central Government, bring back powers from Europe - so people feel they can change things around them, have some say and fire decision makers through the ballot box.
There is a strong constitutional reform agenda that the Conservatives can pursue for the renewal of our democracy and our national life and David Cameron has indicated that he will indeed do so. It's necessary as the public mood is for reform to be deeper than the choice of public cloth.
