Britain’s political system is broken. The way this country is run means that the Government does not have to listen to the people. One party can gain control of Parliament even if only a quarter of the people support them. The electoral system allows Labour and the Tories to take turns at governing. It is not in their interest to change it and as a result, nothing in Britain will change. The worst cases of abuse in the expenses scandal were by MPs in safe seats. Big money has dominated politics for far too long. Because Labour and the Tories benefit most from this, they do not want the system changed.
Liberal Democrats are the only party who have always been committed to fixing our broken politics. We will take power from the state and give it to the people. Liberal Democrats will change parliament forever by introducing a fair, proportional voting system for Westminster, European and local elections. We will end safe seats. We will allow constituents to recall MPs who have broken the rules. We will involve the people in producing a written constitution. We will reform the House of Lords and replace it with an elected second chamber. We will make Parliament easier to petition and lower the voting age.
Liberal Democrats are the only party committed to taking the big money out of politics. We will cap individual donations to political parties and reform trade union funding. We will tighten up the rules on MPs expenses, make the system transparent, and properly punish abuses. We will cut the number of Ministers and MPs and slim down Whitehall.
We also want to see more powers devolved to councils and communities. Â In particular, the planning system has been blighted by rules that override local wishes – such as the top-down housing targets and the requirement to treat back gardens as ‘brownfield’ sites. Â We will scrap national housing targets and give councils the power to decide whether to treat back gardens as brownfield sites or not.