@Machina Whilst I agree that most of this is just soundbites, and political bullshit... it excites me that we now have politicians that exaggerate what civil liberties they're returning, rather than playing-down the ones that they're removing.
I am a supporter of fixed-term parliaments simply because it helps dilute some of the powers that the Prime Minister has - it gives them less flexibility. I mean, had Gordon Brown have called the election when the notions of it first started - when Labour were still ahead in opinion polls - we could still be lumbered with the bloke, and the Labour party in general, for another 2-3 years. Thankfully, Brown had no balls... but another Prime Minister might have taken the opportunity.
Personally, the reforms that I am most looking forward to are the ones of Parliament. I am fairly confident that the electoral reform referendum will pass (it being held on the same day as Scottish/Welsh/NI elections will certainly be in its favour), which I am in support of - whilst you might argue that it gives the Liberal Democrats too much power, I would argue that it shares out power more in-line with what the public want - also, hopefully, giving more power to the grass route parties, and, genuinely, help put Parliament in a position to increase its scrutiny, debate, and representation abilities.
The other thing being the Lords reform. I'm in favour of an 80-20 split. Elected (via PR), appointed (via independent body) split... but with much longer terms (maybe 10 years) - just so that the house can function properly as a democratic upper chamber, without having to deal with the short-termism that the Commons focuses on. This will probably never happen.
Thinking more long-term (I believe that if this Gov't lives up to its promises, we could see a second term of Con-Lib), I'm hoping that they will see their way to moving the powers of the Royal Prerogative to the Commons, and sort out the dog's dinner that has been devolution in this country (being a bit of a perfectionist, I'd like to see a far more equal playing field in terms of devolution - right down to all cities and major towns having directly elected Mayors).
But, I'm rambling, so I'll stop now.
