SamuelRSmith said:
This is the problem. It's not the Monarch, or the Lords, or Quangos that are the issues with our system, it's not even the Commons or the PM - it's the system itself. The constitution is weak, it's so easily changed. Now, of course, I'm not advocating a codified constitution, but we need to move some of the powers away from the Government and to (or back to) Parliament. Yes. - We need to get rid of the Royal Prerogative. All of the current powers of the Monarch, ie - declare peace, war, dissolve Parliament, etc, need to be moved away from the Queen and given to Parliament. Because this simply gives the Prime Minister too much power. However.... Agreed, but this is the least important part of political reform and should only be done after everything else. - This will only be effective if we reduce the power of the Government over Parliament. Perhaps if we have a complete separation of powers, a la, the USA and have an elected Government separate from Parliament then the situation will be solved. However, this will never happen so other things should happen instead: - Something should be done to remove the power of the whips. Forcing MPs to vote against the will of their constituents and for the will of their party should be banned. This would also be doubled with weekly meetings between the MP and his/her Constituents to debate the issues currently going through the Parliament - to enhance the representative function, and to get the system to work as a democracy. Agree, a lot. The existence of whips makes Parliament and indeed the existence of the Opposition irrelevent as the Government can guarantee they win all of the crucial votes. - This system should be changed to be geared towards more Independent MPs. Removing the power of the whips, again, would do this. Also, changing the structuring of the debates so that they're not focused around just the governing party and HMO, but also around the smaller parties and the independents - as to improve both the scrutiny and debating functions of the House. Proportional representation, with primaries to choose parties' candidates. - The Lords need more power. I've already made my case in this thread as to what I believe the structure of the Lords should be, now I will go on to suggest a few powers they should have [...] The Lords is mostly controlled by the current Government with zero democratic influence. The Lords as it is now should not be given those powers otherwise it's worse than the current system. If the Lords is made democratic, which is the only viable alternative, it would be redundant as the Commons already is. My view is that we shouldn't have a Lords, and the power of the Commons to have no confidence in the Government and force an election is sufficient protection as long as Parliament is mostly independent of the Government. If you would plan to keep it, what would you do to reform the Lords? Anyways, I won't say anymore, I don't want to turn this into a manifesto |
@Pyro
I don't like the idea of a Presidential election (which is what you are proposing). It would turn the PM into an even more untouchable, celebrity figure than he is - in the UK we don't respect our PMs as much as the US respect their President because he's seen as more ordinary. Even during the worst of Bush Americans had this ingrained respect for him that was damaging. The PM needs to be in touch with the public, and one of the only ways to ensure that is forcing him to be a party leader first after working his way up from a normal MP.
I think PR and the removal of whips would be sufficient to make Parliament independent.
