Michael Meacher MP

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. (more…)