Nick Clegg: only 'Alice in Wonderland' Westminster would delay reform of 'rotten' Parliament (High Peak Liberal Democrats)

High Peak Liberal Democrats <info@highpeaklibdems.org.uk>

Nick Clegg: only 'Alice in Wonderland' Westminster would delay reform of 'rotten' Parliament

November 4, 2009 10:20 AM
By Nick Clegg MP Liberal Democrat leader in Daily Telegraph

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg - photo PA

Attempts to reform the system of MPs expenses have been a complete disaster.

And now, just at the point when we thought we could start fixing our rotten system, the backsliding has begun.

It has been six months since The Daily Telegraph began exposing the corruption in the system, and the firestorm has raged ever since.

In Kelly, it seemed that we had finally got a blueprint for expenses reform which was based on exactly the right decisions - for example, taking MPs out of the property game.

"We needed all politicians of all parties to come together and say that we were going to adopt the Kelly proposals lock, stock and barrel.

"To suggest now that it could be left up to this arm's length agency - Ipsa - to reinvent the rules is ludicrous. Ipsa should make it clear right from the start that it sees its role as implementing the Kelly proposals in their entirety.

"Otherwise, we won't be any further along in cleaning up the system by the time of the next general election, which seems to me a disaster for democracy.

"The Government is guilty of delivering mixed signals on this. Harriet Harman suggested at the weekend that Ipsa may well reject some of the Kelly proposals.

"But we can scarcely ask people to put their trust back in politics if we are playing games like this.

"Nor will the public forgive us while MPs with some of the most egregious claims, such as "flipping" and the non-payment of capital gains tax, go unpunished.

"I have become increasingly dismayed at the way that Gordon Brown and David Cameron have both been guilty of failing to take their MPs to task over this.

"Cameron in particular consistently portrays himself as someone who believes in new politics, but he has not tackled Conservative MPs who in some cases have benefited financially by tens of thousands of pounds at taxpayers' expense.

"Given the lack of action, it would be adding insult to injury if we didn't sort this out for the future.

And we would be committing a spectacular own goal if we were seen as getting involved in monkey business by trying to wriggle out of the straitjacket that Kelly seeks to impose.

"It beggars belief - and could happen only in this Alice in Wonderland Parliament - and to me the whole thing is starting to stink.

"We need agreement now, driven by political leadership from the top, that Kelly will not be watered down and will be implemented as quickly as possible.

"That seems to be an absolute minimum if we are going to clean up what will go down in history as one of the most rotten Parliaments ever."