Graham Allen
Harriet Harman speech on democratic reform
22 September 2009
Unfortunately Harriet Harman's speech sidesteps the key problem, that government is too strong and Parliament is too weak.
This imbalance has led to government overruling independent reviews on MP's pay backing up the dam which gave way recently. Government's absolute control of parliament's agenda renders Parliament a rubber stamp-not fit for purpose and government's picking of the membership of select committees means no genuinely independent scrutiny takes place. Until a genuine separation of powers takes place and the people allowed to directly elect their own government it will continue to be illegitimate and keep the only directly elected element of our democracy in chains. All the window dressing about diversity and the pandering to the media about MP's costs refuses to face up to the truth that whatever Parliament is, it is only so because government has willed it.
