Parish council elections under way
>>> Council is intending to hold next years elections under this method.
>>> Council is intending to hold next years elections under this method.
The League of Voters
Taking power back from politicians.
The problem with politics is that those that play the game get to write the rules.
MPs often make decisions in the interest of their political party, or themselves, rather than in the interests of the country.Turkeys will never vote for Christmas and MPs will never vote to give up the £170,000 max. they can claim in expenses each year.
To force MPs to vote as their constituents want them to, every MP shall have their manifesto written for them by a committee of local people.
Committee members shall be required to gain a minimum of 4% of the vote in an election held by the League. These manifestos will act as a job description, and a petition signed by 4% of the electorate would begin a referendum that could effectively sack a bad MP by demanding a recall election. MPs will still belong to their own parties but when a national government forms their legislative programme will have to reflect the manifestos written for their MPs as a whole.
Many organisations like the AA, Taxpayers Alliance and the Federation of Small Businesses publish manifestos but don’t run for office; Independents could incorporate these manifestos into their own. Many smaller political parties may also wish to contest these elections. Most importantly though, we hope that many ordinary people stand for election. People with good ideas on how to run the country and who are accessible enough to voters so that many people get the chance to talk to the person they are voting for.
Anyone eligible to stand as an MP can stand in these elections. While we require that anyone contesting committee elections must be willing to accept the final manifesto as binding, we don’t require them to accept our own recommendations as part of their manifesto.
Much needs to be done from organising polling stations to contacting political parties and alerting the public to this chance to make a difference. If you can help at all, contact your local branch.
The League’s manifesto:
We hope everyone standing in committee elections includes these pledges in their manifestos.
• Scrap the personal additional accommodation expenditure allowance and give MPs board in a government owned accommodation.
•Scrap administrative and office expenditure allowance and give MPs use of a government owned office, as this will be cheaper than continually leasing or renting. This will also stop the practice of MPs leasing property from a political party or constituency association.
•Scrap the resettlement grant, which is to assist former MPs with the costs of adjusting to non-parliamentary life.
•Slash the cost of running the House of Commons from £391.8 million pounds to less than a third of this figure.
• Allow 4% of the electorate to bring about referendums, including referendums on recalling MPs.
Further details
- The strength of the committee member shall be directly proportional to the number of votes gained in relation to other committee members. In practice this means that the votes of parties that fail to pass the 4% threshold are not counted when calculating the proportion of voters a committee member represents.
- 4%, rather than 5%, has been chosen as a threshold to highlight the fact that this arbitrary number can have adversely affect politics. In Turkey this figure is 10% and this severely hampers the efforts of smaller parties. To avoid political meddling, the power to change this figure lies solely with the electorate, who would have to call a local referendum by organising a petition.
- Referendums on major issues that achieve a majority of the vote but not a super-majority should be held again in 5 years, if the second referendum is also passed by a simple majority, then the referendum should be passed.The definition of a major issue is one that, when acted upon, cannot be reasonably undone, such as Scottish independence or EU membership.
