Clegg to unveil political reforms
Wednesday 19th May 2010, 12:00PM BST.
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Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg today pledged to “tear through the statute book” in the biggest shake-up in Britain’s democracy for 200 years.
In his first major speech since joining David Cameron’s Tory-Lib Dem coalition, he promised to hand power back to the people.
He said the controversial ID cards scheme and the national identity register will be axed. There will be stricter controls of CCTV and the DNA database, and internet and e-mail records will not be retained without proper justification.
Schools will no longer be allowed to take children’s fingerprints without paren-tal consent. There will also be a review of libel laws to better protect freedom of speech. And limits on the rights to peaceful protest will be removed.
And the public will be asked to decide which laws should be scrapped.
Mr Clegg said the Government intended to take “a wholesale, big bang app-roach” to its reform agenda.
The Liberal Democrat leader said it represented a “fundamental resettlement of the relationship between state and citizen” and the most significant change to British democracy since the Great Reform Act of 1832.
“As we tear through the statute book, we’ll do something no government ever has. We will ask you which laws you think should go,” he said.
“This Government is going to be unlike any other.
“This Government is going to transform our politics so the state has far less control over you and you have far more control over the state.
“This Government is going to break up concentrations of power and hand power back to people, because that is how we build a society that is fair.
“Incremental change will not do. It is time for a wholesale, big bang approach to political reform. That’s what this Government will deliver.”
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