One thing that the government should give way on
I have been fairly full throated in my support for the government regarding its changes to the electoral system recently.
However there is one area where I think they need to give ground. During the debate led by Nick Clegg today he was repeatedly asked why the government was not planning to reduce the size of itself in proportion to the size of the new House of Commons (reducing the number of MPs from 650 to 600). That's a reduction of around 8%.
The government should have around 8% fewer ministers to match this, otherwise the executive will be even more powerful following the reforms (by proportionally increasing the "payroll" vote), something that both coalition partners are supposedly against.
They should allow amendments to the legislation when it goes through the house to correct this anomaly.
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2 comments:
Totally agree, I hope Nick Clegg takes this to heart
Increasing the payroll is clearly unfortunate, but is it really the greater evil here? I think I would prefer a marginal increase to the voting influence of cabinet than an Under-Secretary at department x having to cram even more into their brief...
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