Jon Bright (London, OK): New Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg has reached out to both parties with a strong call to fix Britain's political system. He says:
The United Kingdom can make the unattractive boast that it hosts the most centralised, ossified and unresponsive system of government in Europe today. Go to Britain's most deprived communities and ask people whether government listens to them. In response, you will hear what I have heard time and again: people believe that a politically-inspired - and economically advantaged - minority can sometimes work the system to their own advantage, but that for the vast majority of the British people politics is closed. The system has become the master, the people rendered powerless.
He goes on to call on Brown and Cameron to join him in a "British Constitutional Convention":
The British Constitutional Convention would examine the role and powers of Parliament and ministers; the way in which Parliament is elected and held to account; the relationships between the nations of the United Kingdom; the concentration of power in Whitehall; and the need to strengthen basic individual rights and liberties against the abuse of state power. Its independence and its broad remit would avoid the "pick and mix" approach that has bedevilled previous attempts at constitutional reform in this country. It would work to a deadline of less than one year in length, and would require commitment from all parties to work towards the implementation of its conclusions.
How will that fly with the other parties? The Observer is reporting that encouraging noises are emanating from Number 10 (their headline - "Brown offers to hold talks with Clegg on constitutional reform" - rather unfairly makes it sound like Brown's idea). However, encouraging noises may be all that end up emanating - January's paper on electoral reform is, apparently without a trace of irony, unlikely to endorse electoral reform. Hard to say what team Cameron are going to do about it - Clegg also rather dryly contrasts the personal phone call he received from Brown after he had won the leadership election with the message Cameron posted for him on the Conservative website two days before the result. Could another Lib-Lab pact freeze out the Tories for a further term? How far will Brown have to go to make that scenario a reality?
