David Cameron debates on constitutional reform

May 27 2009 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

David Cameron has ignited a debate on an issue few voters ever take the time consider. Adrian Pearson looks at the questions behind constitutional reform

IT is perhaps a little odd to suggest constitutional reforms as a solution to the expense scandal gripping the country.

After all, all we really want is honest MPs, and that’s not something easily legislated for.

Mr Cameron, of course, knows this, just as he knows his party has so far had the most resignations and will doubtlessly have more to come.

But he will also know that as far as the public are concerned, no one is doing anything to change the system. We’ve seen Gordon Brown fiddling the rules a little over what MPs can ask the taxpayer to cover, but not much else.

Real “people power” then. That’s what Cameron is promising, and with it the obvious inference the other parties are against such radical moves.

But just how much power will be removed from the office of the prime minister and handed back to Parliament and local councils is yet to be seen.

Labour had similar grand aims and talk of a referendum on proportional representation (PR) when they came to power in 1997, but these soon disappeared.

Cameron hasn’t gone quite so far. He knows he’s likely to win a large majority in the next parliament, and those simply do not exits under PR voting methods.

Indeed, if Labour want to scupper the chances of a lengthy period in opposition, they could go for the “nuclear option” and introduce PR to the UK.

Dr Gidon Cohen, politics lecturer at Durham University, said PR would change the face of British politics.