It's all about ‘new politics' you know. Parliamentary reform is emerging as a key battleground in the Election - or at least the Parties seem to think so. Both Labour and the Tories seem intent on demonstrating their commitment to constitutional and parliamentary reform. But is new better than old?

Given recent public outrage over MPs immoral allowance claims (we'll wait to see whether they were illegal too!), cash for lobbying, tax avoidance and accusations of cash for peerages, it's hardly surprising that politicians are keen to show they're offering something ‘new'. Despite some significant constitutional reform under Labour (Scottish government, Welsh Assembly, partial reform of the Lords etc), constitutional reform hasn't been traditional territory for Labour and the Conservatives. The Lib Dems have always been keen on electoral reform, advocating proportional representation, but cynics might argue that this is primarily because they lose out most under the current system.

A Power of Recall is now being adopted by Labour and the Tories - giving voters the right to recall their MP (from Parliament) and effectively cast a vote of no confidence in them. This was the power that was used in California to recall the incumbent Governor, leading to the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger. There's no guarantee that a power of recall would result in film-stars taking office in the House of Commons (though we do already have one Oscar-winning MP in Glenda Jackson!), but anything that makes MPs more accountable to the electorate has got to be a good thing.
Nick Clegg has recently described Labour and the Conservatives as the ‘old parties' in an obvious attempt to present the Lib Dems as the real mantle-bearers for ‘new politics' but poor old Lloyd George must be turning in his (state-funded?) grave! The Liberal tradition predates Labour by about 200 years! And it's a tradition that brought us the origins of the Welfare State that no political leader would dare to propose abolishing.

This begs the question, what was wrong with the old politics? Our politicians were elected to serve the public interest. They weren't slaves to corporate lobbyists or self-serving free-riders on the parliamentary gravy-train. I don't wish to suggest that everything was rosy back in the day (nostalgia's not what it used to be!) but there was a lot to be said with the way politics used to be conducted. So, rather than trying to convince us they are all ‘new', perhaps our politicians would be better advised remembering what went before the current way of doing things. (Oh, dear, does that sound like John Major's ‘back to basics' idea? oops!).