Nick Clegg promises 'biggest shakeup of our democracy since 1832'
Deputy PM says reforms, which include ditching the national ID card scheme and biometric passports, are the most significant in 178 years
* Staff and agencies
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 19 May 2010 12.56 BST
Nick Clegg today promised a move away from "obsessive lawmaking" as part of a wide-ranging shakeup of the political system that included a commitment to an elected House of Lords and a referendum on the voting system.
The deputy prime minister said Britain had become, on some measures, "the most centralised country in Europe, bar Malta".
He also attacked critics of the government's plans to require that any attempt by MPs to force an election be backed by 55% of the House of Commons.
In a speech to students in north London today, Clegg said the reform programme, which includes ditching the national identity card scheme and biometric passports, was the most significant in 178 years.
"I'm talking about the most significant programme of empowerment by a British government since the great enfranchisement of the 19th century. The biggest shakeup of our democracy since 1832, when the Great Reform Act redrew the boundaries of British democracy, for the first time extending the franchise beyond the landed classes."
Clegg said he regarded the measures as so important that he was taking personal responsibility for implementing them, and promised the new government would not be "insecure about relinquishing control".
He pledged to abolish the Contact Point children's database, ensure CCTV was "properly regulated" and place restrictions on DNA storage.
The previous government was guilty of "obsessive lawmaking" and Clegg promised to repeal unnecessary laws and "introduce a mechanism to block pointless new criminal offences".
Clegg used his speech to respond to critics of the new government's plans to make it harder for MPs to force out the government if it is defeated on a vote of confidence. A proposed requirement for a 55% majority of MPs to agree to a dissolution of parliament before the end of its five-year term would help ensure stability, he said.
"That is a much lower threshold than the two-thirds required in Scottish parliament but it strikes the right balance for our parliament, maintaining stability, stopping parties from forcing a dissolution to serve their own interest," he said.
He criticised Labour former ministers such as Jack Straw and David Blunkett who have attacked the plan – but his comments also risk antagonising Conservative MPs who have voiced opposition.
"This last week, former Labour ministers who were once perfectly happy to ride roughshod over the rights of parliament are now declaring that this is somehow an innovation which is a constitutional outrage. They are completely missing the point.
"This is a new right for parliament, additional to the existing powers of no confidence. We are not taking away parliament's right to throw out government. We are taking away government's right to throw out parliament."
On the anti-terrorism laws, he said that new safeguards were needed to prevent their misuse.
"There have been too many cases of individuals denied their rights and whole communities being placed under suspicion. This government will do better by British justice, respecting great British freedoms," he said.
Clegg said he was not offering incremental change but a wholesale, big-bang approach to political reform.
He risked angering some Tories when he said in an interview with the Times that the coalition would aim to make taxes fairer, rather than reduce the overall tax burden. Clegg was asked if he expected the government would reduce the overall tax burden. He replied: "No, I am saying we'll rebalance the tax system. We're not making great claims about the overall tax burden."
Nick Clegg promises 'biggest shakeup of our democracy since 1832' | Politics | guardian.co.uk
Nick Clegg promises 'biggest shakeup of our democracy since 1832'
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