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ELECT PEERS TO STOP SUSPICION OF CORRUPTION
During the debate on the Electoral Administration Bill today (Tuesday), Liberal Democrat Lord Tyler said:
“These reforms to make the registration process more secure and more effective could be more urgent than may at first appear. We may be too late to improve the process before this year’s local authority elections, but who knows what elections may be on the immediate horizon.
“Yesterday the Minister for the Department of Constitutional Affairs told the Commons: ‘As for the reform of the House of Lords, he will wish to know that we look forward to proceeding with change there very speedily indeed.’ [Hansard Col 27 20.3.2006]
“Clearly the Government – at last – recognises that it is urgent to disentangle membership of this House of Parliament from the honours system. That must mean that at least a majority of Members will have to be elected.
“The sooner it becomes evident to the public that membership of the legislature has to be earned with hundreds of thousands of votes – rather than bought with hundreds of thousands of pounds – the sooner all suspicions of corruption will be dispelled.
“To speed the process can I invite Ministers to re-examine the draft Second Chamber of Parliament Bill?”
Note: The Second Chamber of Parliament Bill was published on 10 February 2005, prepared by Ken Clarke, Robin Cook, Paul Tyler, Tony Wright and George Young, and supported by 28 other leading MPs and Peers, including William Hague and Neil Kinnock. 118 MPs in the current House of Commons, led by David Curry and Menzies Campbell, have endorsed it as a basis for reform by signing EDM 571. |
News Archive 
Tuesday, 02 December 2008
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