Nick Clegg's speech on political reform (South Thanet Liberal Democrats)

Nick Clegg's speech on political reform

April 7, 2010 4:05 PM
Originally published by UK Liberal Democrats

Speaking in a press conference before the last Prime Minister's Questions of this Parliament, Nick Clegg said:

Today is the last big set piece day in Westminster before the General Election.

After a year of scandal and sleaze:

We are finally seeing the back of the most corrupt Parliament in living memory.

People watching this Parliament come to an end will rightly say: never again.

In the campaign over the next four weeks you will hear a lot about political reform.

David Cameron will talk about cutting the cost of politics.

Gordon Brown will talk about reforming the Lords.

Their words are a smokescreen for the truth:

Both of them would do anything to protect the corrupt two-party stitch up and

secrecy of Westminster.

That's the reason they've blocked serious reform every step of the way - to keep

things exactly the way they are.

If Labour and Conservatives get their way, the Parliament returned on 6 May will be

no different from the one being dissolved this weekend.

If Labour and Conservatives get their way, only the faces will change.

All the corruption and all the sleaze....

All the big money and all the backroom dealings... will remain.

Only the Liberal Democrats can be trusted on political reform.

Labour and the Conservatives talk about it.

We will make sure it happens.

Anyone who needs proof of what I'm saying today should turn to the recently

published minutes of the Hayden Phillips negotiations on party funding.

They make depressing reading.

A clear demonstration of the venal self-interested way the two old parties behave

when the doors are closed.

The further the negotiations went

The more hostile and difficult the Labour and Conservative representatives became.

The closer they got to change

The more they did to stop it from happening.

The evidence is here in black and white.

Labour chose to protect their union paymasters.

And the Conservatives chose to protect their chums in the City and their sugar daddy

in Belize.

The two old parties will never remove the stench of corruption from the Houses of

Parliament.

When push comes to shove, they look after themselves, instead of looking out for the

country.

It's the same pattern we have seen, time and again, in recent years.

Months ago, I demanded Sir Thomas Legg extend his inquiry into expenses abuses to

cover all those MPs who flipped their homes or avoided Capital Gains Tax.

What did we get from Labour and the Conservatives?

Stony silence.

They let the flippers and the CGT avoiders off scot free.

And when Liberal Democrats put forward plans to give people the right to sack

corrupt MPs.

Labour and the Conservatives blocked them.

When Liberal Democrats put forward plans to crack down on lobbying.

Labour and the Conservatives blocked them.

When Liberal Democrats put forward plans to put a cap on donations to political

parties.

Labour and the Conservatives blocked them.

And yesterday both Labour and the Conservatives blocked even the most modest reforms

to our electoral system in the House of Lords.

It wasn't a wash up it was a stitch up.

This is proof positive that you'll never get real change with either of them.

The way the old parties behave is to talk about change in order to prevent it from

happening.

For Gordon Brown, change is what you talk about when you want everything to stay the

same.

For David Cameron, change stops on May 7th.

A vote for Labour or the Conservative parties is a vote for corrupt politics.

Liberal Democrats are the only party that will radically shake up politics to make

it fair, and put power in the hands of citizens, rather than politicians.

We will give people a real say in who governs the country by introducing fair votes

including for the House of Lords.

We will stop big donations.

We will give people the power to sack corrupt MPs.

We will make sure that instead of looking down on politics in disgust, once again

people can look to Westminster with pride in our democracy.

The choice in this election is simple.

Old, corrupt politics with Labour and the Conservatives.

Or open transparent fair politics with the Liberal Democrats.

South Thanet Liberal Democrats