General Election

Much as I look forward to taking on Darlington Labour MP Alan Milburn at the ballot box, I think this misses the point. What we need is a reformed Parliament.

We need an electoral system that gives real power to voters and makes sure that all votes in all seats count. We need to get rid of all those hundreds of safe seats where most people’s votes are wasted and MPs cannot be made accountable.

A General Election will not deliver that. It will give the illusion of change, the illusion of accountability.

Since many of the worst offenders in this scandal are in safe seats, a General Election will barely touch the guilty ones.

We need the other main parties to support the Liberal Democrats’ commitment to constitutional and electoral reform.

Without that commitment, an election would be nothing more than a shuffling of the deckchairs.

Councillor Mike Barker, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesman, Darlington.

WE are in need of a Government able to get on continuing to pursue measures to get us out of the present economic difficulties and reducing the pain caused by the economic downturn to a minimum.

It needs to have the confidence of the electorate, which has been undermined by MPs’ abuses of the expenses system.

In fact, reform of the expenses system is now the top priority. I think that to give all parties the time to put their own houses in order the earliest time for a General Election would be September or October this year.

I have written to Gordon Brown suggesting that he immediately announces his intention to go to the Queen for a dissolution of Parliament in September or October.

I think that a new Parliament elected as soon as that would be able to restore trust in the politicians who run the country, and my suggestion would give time for all rotten apples to be removed.

Geoffrey Bulmer, Billingham.