One of the little noticed aspects of this newly spatchcocked Tory-Liberal Government is that     Nick Clegg, farmed out as Deputy Prime Minister (‘not worth a bucket of warm spit’ as the US Vice-presidency was once delicately described), will actually have a job to do: taking on constitutional renewal.   Attention has focused on electoral reform – the commitment to bring in a referendum on AV.   But that is far the weakest option for electoral reform since it contains no element of proportionality, and is actually less important than other changes in the structure of power that are now at last coming on the agenda.

Before the election I took part in a cross-party delegation that lobbied all three party leaders on their plans for democratising Parliament.   Clegg was the most animated of the three, admitting he hadn’t previously given much attention to it, but exhibiting an almost boyish enthusiasm to get involved – as soon as someone else gave him a brief.   He may well be good material to work on.

The brief that we will be putting to him is a significant list.   First, we want the resolutions voted on and passed at the end of the last Parliament to be implemented.   These established a Back-Bench Business Committee of the House to take responsibility for all the non-governmental agenda in the Commons, plus election (as opposed to selection by the Whips) of all chairs and members of the Select Committees.   Those two reforms alone will dramatically improve the capacity of the House to hold the Government to account.

But there are many other demands that need to be met before Parliament can truly be said to have a democratic framework.   Those appointed to Cabinet by the Prime Minister should be subject to televised Parliamentary hearings (in front of the relevant Select Committee) before their position is ratified, and could be recalled by the Committee to be grilled over any perceived major failure or incompetence.   The main reform conclusions arising from the more important Select Committee reports should be tabled for debate and voting on on the floor of the House.

Committees of Inquiry set up by the Prime Minister should be subject to ratification by Parliament as to their chair, members and terms of reference.   In addition, Parliament should also take the power to set up its own Committees of Inquiry, subject to a vote of the House, on issues of high public importance where for whatever reason the PM declines to do so.   And Parliament should set up its own Petitions Committee to receive and sort petitions from the public, with the option to send them to the appropriate Government Department for action, or to the Business Committee for debate and vote on the floor of the House, or to the appropriate Select Committee for further investigation.

Enough to keep Nick Clegg’s in-tray humming for quite a while.

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