OBSERVER (UK Newspaper) - Parliament in crisis: When will MPs start to listen to the people? | Politics | The Observer

Parliament in crisis: When will MPs start to listen to the people?

• Buzz up!
• Digg it

• The Observer, Sunday 24 May 2009
• Article history

The expense crisis reveals a nation governed by a political elite that has stopped listening and who are accountable to no one but their party machines. Too many MPs seem more interested in changing their homes than changing the world. Our society faces real problems - mass unemployment and growing poverty, the threat of climate chaos and an erosion of our civil liberties to name but three. These all require effective government working on behalf of the popular will. Yet our whole political system is close to collapse. We demand a new electoral system that makes everyone's vote count.

On the day of the next general election, there should be a binding referendum on whether to change to a more proportional electoral system. This should be drawn up by a large jury of randomly selected citizens, given the time and information to deliberate on what voting system and other changes would make Parliament more accountable to citizens.

We demand the right to be able to vote for a change:

Helena Kennedy
QC
Philip Pullman
author
Damon Albarn
musician
John Sauven
Greenpeace
Martin Bell
anti-sleaze campaigner
Richard Wilson
actor
Polly Toynbee
journalist
Susie Orbach
author and psychologist
Jonathan Pryce
actor
Caroline Lucas
leaderGreen party
Brian Eno
musician
Neal Lawson
Compass
Ken Ritchie
ERS
Colin Hines
Green New Deal
Matthew Taylor (in personal capacity)
RSA
Hari Kunzru
author
Mark Thomas
comedian
Oona King
ex Labour MP
Michael Brown
journalist and ex-Tory MP
Pam Giddy
Power Inquiry
Salma Yaqoob
Leader Respect
Wes Streeting
President NUS
Gordon Roddick
Lisa Appignanesi
Chair of PEN
Prof James Forrester
Carmen Callil
author and publisher
Sunder Katwala
Fabians
Billy Bragg
musician
Sam Tarry
Chair Young Labour
Peter Facey
Unlock Democracy
Prof David Marquand
Dave Rowntree
musician
Richard Reeves
Demos
Ann Pettifor
Advocacy UK
Prof Richard Sennett
Sunny Hundal
Liberal Conspiracy
Anthony Barnett, openDemocracy
Richard Grayson, Social Liberal Forum
John Harris, journalist
Pete Myers, enoughsenough.org
Steve Richards, journalist
Tony Robinson, actor
Richard Murphy, Tax Justice
Jeremy Leggett, Solarcentury
AC Grayling, philosopher
Katie Hickman, author
Benedict Southworth, World Development Movement
Lance Price, journalist
Ann Black, Labour activist
Peter Tatchell, Human Rights campaigner
Hilary Wainwright, Red Pepper
David Aaronovitch, journalist
Kevin Maguire, journalist

Henry Porter (Comment, last week) says that MPs have 143 days of holiday, yet he knows full well that parliamentary recesses are anything but a holiday. They are a time when MPs do important, often difficult and boring, constituency work. He writes of parliamentary tradition and disregard for the UK's unwritten constitution. Yet he seems unaware that in the UK's constitutional tradition MPs are elected representatives, whose job is not just to legislate nationally but to represent locally. Yes, some have done terrible things and they should go, but most MPs are not crooks.
Paul Sagar
London E1

Henry Porter is spot-on in his analysis of the problems and solutions to the political crisis. However, both the political crisis and the western banking crisis were anticipated well in advance of current events. Anybody who had read British Government in Crisis by Sir Christopher Foster in 2005 and Traders, Guns and Money by Satyajit Das in 2006 would not have been surprised by the current crises. Both crises have been aided and abetted by New Labour's unwritten policy of the Americanisation of the UK.
David Blunn
Eglwyswrw, Pembrokeshire

Henry Porter's list of recommendations to reform Parliament is both useful and practicable. If I were to pick one reform, however, I would opt for proportional representation. We cannot claim to have a genuinely representative democracy when our electoral system produces governments that have registered fewer than a quarter of votes.
Dr Tal Younis
Bishopbriggs, Glasgow

Our problems with our parliamentary democracy are far more serious than those of some MPs fiddling or being greedy concerning their expenses. The real problem with our system is that it totally fails to address the four major and inter-connected problems of our society, to wit: taking real and urgent action on climate change, curbing population growth, bringing about a fairer sharing of the Earth's resources and failure to regulate wealth and business to serve the needs of society.

Instead of grappling with these, our parliamentary system is obsessed by the need to maintain the short-term popularity of our MPs. Possibly, present public anger may give us a chance to change the system to one which addresses these real issues.
Tony Hamilton
Broadstone, Dorset

via guardian.co.uk

Posted via web from sunwalking's posterous