The past week has provided us with a taster of the kind of things we can expect from the dawn of “new politics” and a “renewed democracy”.
While many have been hailing our new government as a breakthrough in progressive politics, something decidedly undemocratic and self-serving has been bubbling away in the corridors of power of late and - perhaps most worryingly of all - nobody seems to mind too much.
The coalition’s proposals to raise the threshold at which parliament must be dissolved from 50% plus one of the Commons vote to 55% are unconstitutional, undemocratic, and in my opinion, unjustifiable.
“Fixing our broken politics” was not supposed to include “fixing” our constitution - so that it becomes the responsibility of parliament, not the coalition partners, to prop up a government. If the coalition partners can’t work together and lose the confidence of parliament then there is only one remaining option that can give an elected government the mandate to carry out its legislative programme – another general election.
To remove the right of over half of parliament to throw out a government through a vote of no confidence is a matter of convenience – not a position of principle. It is naked self-interest of the worst kind.
At a time when public support for proportional representation and a more responsive politics is at its peak, its seems strange that the very same public are happy to handover the keys to a Prime Minister for five years, come what may – and with no strings attached.
All the talk of “stable and strong government in the national interest” has left us sleep-walking into an era where credibility is becoming secondary to stability. We can only hope that the rebels within the coalition’s ranks can make the rest of their parties see beyond their own needs.
While many have been hailing our new government as a breakthrough in progressive politics, something decidedly undemocratic and self-serving has been bubbling away in the corridors of power of late and - perhaps most worryingly of all - nobody seems to mind too much.
The coalition’s proposals to raise the threshold at which parliament must be dissolved from 50% plus one of the Commons vote to 55% are unconstitutional, undemocratic, and in my opinion, unjustifiable.
“Fixing our broken politics” was not supposed to include “fixing” our constitution - so that it becomes the responsibility of parliament, not the coalition partners, to prop up a government. If the coalition partners can’t work together and lose the confidence of parliament then there is only one remaining option that can give an elected government the mandate to carry out its legislative programme – another general election.
To remove the right of over half of parliament to throw out a government through a vote of no confidence is a matter of convenience – not a position of principle. It is naked self-interest of the worst kind.
At a time when public support for proportional representation and a more responsive politics is at its peak, its seems strange that the very same public are happy to handover the keys to a Prime Minister for five years, come what may – and with no strings attached.
All the talk of “stable and strong government in the national interest” has left us sleep-walking into an era where credibility is becoming secondary to stability. We can only hope that the rebels within the coalition’s ranks can make the rest of their parties see beyond their own needs.
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