Reading Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrats in Reading have slammed the contents of today’s Queen’s Speech as a ‘self-serving charade’.

Commenting on the legislative programme, Cllr Gareth Epps, Liberal Democrat prospective MP for Reading East, said:-

“The Queen’s Speech has been shamelessly turned by Labour into a self-serving political charade. At a time when Parliament has lost its authority following the expenses scandal, all it can do is give its successor a fresh start. Confidence and trust in the political process and faith in the Government’s capacity to change things has never been so low.

“An emergency programme of political reform is the duty of this Parliament, in order to clear the way for its successor. Instead, we see Bills proposed that in most cases will never see the statute book and in some cases are political posturing of the most vacuous kind.”

The Liberal Democrats are putting forward a programme of emergency political reform:-

1. Recall power for MPs suspended for misconduct – so we never again have to wait months and years to get rid of people who have betrayed the people they represent
2. Code of conduct for candidates in the next election, including declaration of financial interests – so everyone elected can command full public confidence
3. House of Lords reform – so only elected representatives have the power to make our laws
4. Party funding reform in time for this election – so big money and the whiff of corruption it brings are removed from politics for good
5. Fixed term Parliaments – so the voters can never again be toyed with by a Prime Minister planning an election timetable to save his own skin
6. Legislation to establish a 100-person Citizens’ Assembly, on the Canadian model, to agree a new voting system for Parliamentary Elections
7. Changes to House of Commons procedure to reduce executive power – so never again can a government use the power of the whips to ride roughshod over the views of Parliament.