Expenses scandal: The 100-day plan
Thursday, 28 May 2009 12:19 PM
By Ian Dunt
Nick Clegg has outlined a 100-day plan to reform parliament in the wake of the expenses scandal.
The Liberal Democrat leader said MPs should not go on holiday until the situation is resolved.
"Let us bar the gates of Westminster and stop MPs leaving for their summer holidays until this crisis has been sorted out, and every nook and cranny of our political system reformed," Mr Clegg wrote in the Guardian.
"I'm setting out a plan of action to get all the changes we need delivered in just 100 days - making it possible for MPs to be sacked by their constituents, abolishing the House of Lords, getting corrupt money out of politics and changing the electoral system to give a voice to everyone."
Nick Clegg's take power back website
Mr Clegg wants parliamentary terms fixed at four years and the House of Lords replaced by a wholly-elected senate.
There would also be greater powers for MPs to decide the parliamentary timetable and a wholesale uptake of the expenses review by the standards watchdog.
"For decades, political reformers have been thwarted by the inertia of Westminster," he wrote.
"But the expenses scandal has overturned old certainties and made change possible. This moment must be seized by all those who want a different kind of politics in Britain.
"Warm words, rhetoric and consideration are not enough; indeed they are a guarantee that little will happen."
The party leader's most radical plan involves a referendum on electoral reform, which has already been suggested by Alan Johnson, health secretary, and John Denham, universities secretary.
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