Friday 29 May 2009 4:15 pm
Like so many of my fellow voters, I've been shocked and disgusted by revelations about greedy and corrupt MPs over the last few weeks.We need total openness about MPs' expenses, now and in the future. I am disappointed that local Labour MP Emily Thornberry failed to vote for opening up MPs' expenses when she had the chance.
I was one of more than 80 leading candidates from across the country who wrote to the Speaker demanding he publish all MPs' expenses – or resign. Now he has quit. But that is not enough. We need a wholesale reform of politics so that this betrayal of the voters cannot happen again.
That's why I am backing calls for a fairer voting system, so voters are in charge and MPs cannot rely on safe seats; for reform of party funding and the House of Lords; no more buying peerages and policies; and for a recall system, so that voters can force a by-election if their MP has let them down.
The outdated Westminster system means that many seats are 'safe' so the real selection is done by the leading party not the voters. That doesn't encourage independent thinkers. Interestingly, there's evidence that the safer the seat, the more likely the MP is to have dodgy expenses.
On 4 June, thanks to the PR system, there is no such thing as a wasted vote. Londoners from anywhere in the capital who want to vote Lib Dem (or any other party) will know that their vote counts in full. That ought to be the case for any election, but sadly it's not.
In the local and General elections, with the 'first past the post' system, most constituencies are a two-horse race. In Islington, it's Lib Dems vs Labour; the Greens have just one councillor, and Conservatives none. With Emily Thornberry's Islington South & Finsbury majority just 484 votes ahead of the Lib Dems, electors face a clear choice: vote Lib Dem for change, while any other vote helps Labour cling on.
Reform may be starting, urgently, with MPs expenses, but it must not end there. With speculation that hundreds of MPs may be swept away when the General Election comes, the traditional Labour/Tory version of 'politics as usual' is on the way out.
We need politicians from all parties who are willing to make these changes. And if existing MPs won't change the system, then we need to elect a new team who will.
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