GREG DYKE CALLS FOR DEMOCRATIC REFORM (Eastleigh Liberal Democrats)

Eastleigh Liberal Democrats <enquiries@eastleighlibdems.org.uk>

GREG DYKE CALLS FOR DEMOCRATIC REFORM

October 17, 2006 4:48 PM

Greg Dyke, the former director-general of the BBC, has called for a major reform and renewal of our democracy to curb the power of the Prime Minister.

In an impassioned speech to the Eastleigh Liberal Democrats' annual dinner, Mr Dyke said: "Our democracy is in trouble and it needs to be reformed. A gutless cabinet has allowed the Prime Minister to become all-powerful".

Mr Dyke said that the decision to go to war in Iraq had been an even bigger mistake than the invasion of Egypt over the Suez canal in 1956, and what was astonishing is how it was such a personal decision of the Prime Minister.

Tony Blair had promised to support George Bush, and every other element of the British state including MI6 and the law officers were bent to support that goal without even proper discussion in the Cabinet, said Mr Dyke.

The Prime Minister's powers of patronage - to hire and fire cabinet ministers and others - had gradually eroded the other checks on his freedom of action which were meant to be parliament and the cabinet.

Mr Dyke said that we needed to reform the electoral system to make the result more proportional to the votes cast as any system that elected a majority government with the support of only 21.6 per cent of the electorate or 36 per cent of those voting could not be legitimate.

It was also crucial to ensure that the legislature - the Commons and the Lords - could act as a proper check on the executive so that maybe the Prime Minister should be directly elected and the whipping system abolished in the Lords, he said.

Radical change was possible and was coming because the people would insist on it even if the professional politicians did not want it. Mr Dyke gave the examples of the referenda on the European constitution in the Netherlands and France as "people power".

Mr Dyke was welcomed to the East Horton Golf Centre by Eastleigh MP Chris Huhne, Lord Chidgey of Hamble-le-Rice, who is the President of the Eastleigh Liberal Democrats, Cllr Keith House, Eastleigh borough's leader, Mayor Cllr Peter Wall and Environment cabinet member Cllr Louise Bloom.

The annual dinner was the best attended ever. Chris Huhne MP said that it was good to celebrate holding the Eastleigh seat at the general election, the elevation of Lord Chidgey to the House of Lords, and the further gains from the Conservatives of another two seats in the borough elections in May.