Parliament - root and branch reform needed now!

Written by Neil Matthews, Parliamentary Candidate for Folkestone & Hythe on Thu 3rd Sep 2009

Remember the MPs' expenses scandal of duck houses, moats and mattresses? The public outrage has diminished since our MPs disappeared on their summer holidays. But MPs who do not wish to derail the gravy train hope that time will be a good healer and the public will forget. This long wait for MPs to sort out their own scandal should be finalised as soon as possible. Sir Christopher Kelly, Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, attacked MPs for allowing themselves to scrutinise their own expenses. His first thoughts were, quiet rightly, that even if they did, it would not command full public confidence. There should be no doubt that Sir Christopher's expenses review should be accepted, in full.

But it is not just MPs' expenses that needs sorting out. Parliament has for too long had a culture of arrogance and secrecy. The true extent of the decay within the parliament system is at last becoming clear but now we have a chance to completely reform it - and it should be done now. Not doing so will just allow for another 'scandal' and we would get angry, again, in the future.

Parliament needs a complete health check from top to bottom.

• The ability to sack a sitting MP who breaks the rules or the law.

• A change to stop large donations to political parties from businesses, organisations or individuals that can lead to unsavoury 'affiliations'.

• An elected House of Lords. So far the changes made to the second chamber have stopped short of any real and meaningful reform.

• A fairer voting system. At present it is possible to have an MP elected by less than half of the votes cast.

• To reduce the accrued power of the Government and restore it back to Parliament itself.

And of course, we still have many MPs that hold many directorships. These MPs attempt to dispel the moans from the electorate by sticking to the line that being in these businesses helps them to be a good MP, but in essence, all it does is make them vulnerable to focused lobbying, and the time they should spend in their constituency or Parliament hijacked by the added bonus of a much improved bank account! Living in modern times requires an MP to be 'full time'.

To the basics of voting itself, we must look at who declares the eligibility to vote within the home - the individual accountability of ourselves or the named householder? And for postal voting, although a boon for absent or busy voters, the present system is unreasonably open to fraud.

How can we, as a country, lecture other countries about democracy when we have so many undemocratic elements within our own system? People rightly require complete openness and transparency in today's democracy and we need to seize this opportunity to 'get our House in order', and to show the world we mean it.