Yesterday’s Guardian has more voices in support of a Citizens’ Convention to reform our political processes, kickstarted by the expenses scandal.
Among various luminaries of the reformist left and centre are a number of Lib Dems, including Lib Dem Voice editor Stephen Tall, and Liberal Youth chair Elaine Bagshawe. Their cause is honourable, but there is an air of deckchairs and Titanic in a lineup which features no Tories at all.
Lib Dem blogger and democracy campaigner James Graham argues that pre-election legislation is essential to tie the hands of any incoming government. That’s not terribly democratic – if Labour did that on an issue we loathed (and there are lots of examples from ID cards to Heathrow, nuclear power, Trident renewal or new databases), we’d be the first to complain.
As it is, I can’t see a dying Labour government giving up legislative time to anything other than damage limitation. This will be the palliative care parliament.
The real chance for reform will come from electing MPs with the right mandate. James also points out that MPs of all parties have backed the Convention by signing the EDM (although Emily Thornberry, unsurprisingly, has not). But the only ones from a party committed to electoral reform are Liberal Democrats, which is why maximising the number of Lib Dem MPs is so important.
So yes, let’s keep writing letters. But let’s deliver them in our key seats too!
