Jon Bright (London, OK): After news seeped out about House of Lords reform last week, further indications of what is to come in the draft constitutional reform bill (which should emerge tomorrow) have surfaced. It appears the UK is to get a new voting system - AV, to be precise - which Sunder Katwala recommended back when Brown looked likely to win a landslide. Apparent concerns about having a second chamber which could be seen as "more legitimate" than the first (when the House of Lords moves to a PR system) were part of the motivating factor. The government will publish a consultation paper soon, which will also look at weekend voting and compulsory voting as ways of boosting turnout.
With some relatively significant sounding reforms of party funding being proposed as well, Brown's governance agenda is beginning to amount to a fairly meaty package of reform. It's striking that the "new politics" is still being delivered in this distinctly old politics fashion (secret planning followed by managed leaks to the press). And whether all this will restore "faith" in politics remains a live question - the key factor will be, in my opinion, whether constitutional reform amounts to a genuine and palpable change in the way politics is conducted. At the moment, I have the slight feeling that reforms are being proposed which the government does not expect to affect them too much. Nevertheless, it's an exciting time for democratic reform with plenty of possibility - and Brown should be applauded for not dropping an agenda which has not captured public imagination, despite all his setbacks since late September.
