It’s time to overhaul the system as well as the buildings...
THE Houses of Parliament buildings, we are informed, require repairs and renewal estimated to cost at least £4bn, requiring parliamentarians and staff to relocate to other buildings for six years.
If the buildings need a complete revamp so does the democratic process. Devolution was Gordon Brown’s baby but he did not complete the process, leaving England still governed by the UK parliament where MPs from devolved parts of the UK can still debate and vote on domestic issues that affect England solely.
So the revamp of Westminster is now an opportunity to complete the devolution process, rather than the piecemeal attempts at decentralization in some areas, and then to locate an English parliament outside London, Manchester being more than suitable.
Whilst the government intends to reduce the House of Commons by 50 members following a boundary review that is flawed, ignoring over two million additional voters, the House of Lords, with members unelected, continues to increase annually to now over 800. So the elected chamber faces reduction to save £60m whilst the unelected membership grows like topsy.
The referendum has demonstrated that our present electoral system is not fit for purpose. Certainly many parliamentarians failed to understand the many influences that concerned the electorate who having a vote of equal value demonstrated their thoughts on the issues.
The first-past-the-post electoral system clearly fails to demonstrate the issues that concern the electorate.
So now is the opportunity to reform both our parliamentary institutions and electoral system. Only then can our democratic process flourish.