Update: We’ve closed comments on this post as the Interview is now finished. See Nick’s Twitter stream for further responses to questions and this post for an account of how the event worked.
Video Feed
If you’ve got a question for Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg then now’s your chance: on Monday July 13th (1200 GMT). he’ll be joining the Reuters UK team to take your questions live. And no subject is off limits.
You’ll be able to see the live videostream here and you can ask questions ahead of the event or respond during it by using Twitter (#askclegg) the 12 Seconds video service (nickclegg) or use this post’s comment form below. (We’ll also feature the highlights on the reuters uk news twitterstream.) Nick introduces the event below and, to kick off the discussion, asks a couple of questions of his own.
On Monday we can change the way we do politics. Every week I travel around the country to meet people in their local town halls and listen to their views. Anyone can come along and ask me (just about) anything and in return I get a pretty good picture of how people across the UK feel about politics and how they are being affected by the recession.
Next week I am going to do another of my public Q&A meetings, but this time it is going to be live and online so that you can ask me your questions from home, your work or wherever you happen to be online. There will be no script and no special invitations - just get in touch and ask a question on subjects that concern you.
The one thing that keeps coming up again and again is the state of our politics and how we can clean it up. Many people say they would like to see action taken against MPs who seriously abuse the system. But currently voters have no power to sack those MPs who have been found guilty of serious wrong-doing. I want to change this and make politicians more accountable and politics more transparent. I am keen to hear your ideas.
This has never been done before so, on Monday 13th July post your questions and let’s discuss how we can clean up politics and fix the British economy.
Nick Clegg
This is a great idea, and we should see more of this sort of thing.
2 reforms to the voting system could make our politics much more responsive, and give us much more power:
1) Why not introduce a system of Delegated Voting, whereby MPs' votes in the Commons depend directly on how many people voted for them (votes cast for other parties in that constituency could be distributed to the elected MPs of that party)? In this way, every vote would count directly in the Commons, for every MP and for every party. Votes would matter in safe seats and in marginal seats; Labour votes would count in Tory constituencies, and so would Tory ones, because it would stop being just about who got the seat, and start being about the votes. Why don't you propose such a system, so that in future we can affect politics with our votes even where our MP retains their seat?
2) More ambitiously, could we have continuous voting, where we could change our vote online when we wanted (maybe with a restriction on doing it too often), so that Parliament would gradually change as opinion in the country changed, and MPs and governments would always be at the mercy of the people? Truly unpopular and massively important decisions might not then go through, as they can now.
Trackback
173 comments so far
Previous | 9 … | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | … 1 | Next
Do you agree with Stern that 2% of GDP should be spent mitigating global warming? If so, how can you afford to offer tax cuts at the next general election?
Dear Nick,
I was diagnosed with a personality disorder in April 2008 (Mental Health Condition under the Mental Health Act) i would like to ask if there was anything that you would be able to do to get more funding for C.M.H.T’s (Community Mental Health Teams) to fund treatments for this conditions. My local NHS Trust said they only get limited funding for personality disorders and as such there are very long waiting lists for Psychological therapies. So far i have been waiting a year alone for one treatment with no prospect of getting the treatment i require anytime soon. I have recently found out that Hampshire Partnership NHS Trust (Foundation Trust) is considering withdrawing funding completely for a therapy called Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) which myself and other people who suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder require to allow us to learn the coping skills in life to stop us self harming and self mutilating ourselves. It is estimated that approx 2% of the population of the U.K. suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder and out of this 1 in 10 will successfully complete a suicide attempt. This condition can kill the person who suffers it just as quickly as cancer or HIV but still the NHS underfunds treatments and research into this condition. I would like to know if you can get more funding for this area to help save more lives.
Regards
Lee
Seeing ITV can get immediate results by using technology for an audience.
Would it not be possible to install this in the house and save valuable time.
Hi Nick,
No MP should be sacked. There wrong doing is due to the incompetence of the tax system. Does the Tax system in uk make it clear enough to an offender when he is going wrong in his tax payments? Should it not be upto the tax department to alert payers when they are not completing their tax returns correctly. Expenses are part of he tax system and MP’s if found guilty of fraud should be treated like other offenders. If an MP breaks the law and goes to prison I think that person is no longer an MP.
why do the government intend to deport a woman who escaped from domestic violence and there is a credible threat in her countries newspaper. and she has been living in this country for ten years as asylum seeker without any criminal record and have a child here who is at school????And still reporting at immigration office. What can that person do??? If her MP is the immigration minister and unwilling to help her, what can she do??? Can she contact another MP??? or MEP??? URGENT!!!!!!
Nick, Name changing will not make a real difference.
Our problem is how to break through the credibility gap! We have all the policies, all the capable spokesmen, all the right ideas etc. but do not have the backing of the media. Good news does not sell papers, good policies do not sell papers. Bad policies allow newspapers to have an easy life saying how awful the world is instead of reporting the good things that happen.
Gordon Brown is not all bad, in fact he has done more good for the third world than any other politican in my memory. His leadership is not perfect but then whose is?
We should give credit where it is due.
Britain punches above its weight in the world and the Lib Dems punch above their weight in British politics. Vince Cable has done more for the LibDem cause with his down to earth financial advice than any and that has a knock on effect , even Question Time is beginning to recognise the importance of the LibDems. Our best strategy is to keep making the right judgments!
In response to Kevin’s note about adultery I am surprised that the court did not consider a same sex relationships as adultery. Adultery is any spoiling of relationship and not specifically heterosexual in nature.
Bearing in mind the mindset of corruption that has been revealed in all stratas of politics, would he, as leader of the Liberal Democrats follow Cameron’s lead and take people who have not been card carrying members of the Liberal Democrats for the past year or so as candidates for Parliament?
If he would not, what other suggestions would he have to counteract the endemic corruption and the fact that MPs currently sitting are against rules that those in business regard as being commonplace re expenses etc.
Dear Nick
I implore you to ask the Prime Minister in Parliament why the MOD went ahead with buying the Navistar MXT-MVA at a cost of £600,000 each when the Penatagon had rejected this vehicle when it failed a basic survivability test. After this test failure the USA bought the superior Oshtosk M-ATV at a cost of £300,000 each for its troops in Afghanistan. As a mother of a serving soldier I want to know why we are buying vehicles that are rejected by one of our allies, who is responsible at the MOD for this dereliction in the duty of care of our troops, when will they be named and shamed and when will they resign?
Should Britain become a full member of the Schengen Agreement similar to most of the members of the European Union (except Ireland, Cyprus, Romania & Bulgaria)?
If not, why and when will UK politicians stop talking about protecting the UK’s borders when the land border with the Irish Republic(a foreign country similar to France) has an open border with limited or no immigration controls?
I have two questions for Nick that I believe would help the public to better understand where the Party stands on immigration and the EU:-
1. Do you agree that immigration needs to be properly managed and controlled in the UK if integration is to be successful and the quality of life of its inhabitants preserved?
2. Presumably, the Party remains the only major Party committed to a referendum on membership of the EU. Why does the Party not make more of this?
Hello Nick
I’m interested in how you intend to stand up against Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, and retain your independence from it, whilst knowing that it has a very real influence on millions of people in this country (more’s the pity)?
Many thanks
Brett
Nick,
In a time when all parties are focused on equality in society, with proposals for a fully elected second chamber being offered, do you think it is now time to address what use, if any, the monarchy has in modern day society? And would you agree that to have an unelected head of state, even if cerimonial, in a position of power and privledge sends out the image of inequality in Britain?
Thankyou.
If we withdrew from Afghanistan and left them to sort out their own problems, would that endanger the British public in any way? If it is thought that this would increase the terrorist threat to this country, then we would at least have our service men at home to protect their own country which after all is their main object.
The European Union is very far from being truly democratic as the elected members have only very limited powers. Are the Liberal Democrats committed to holding a referendum on British membership if they win the next general election and equally committed to implementing the will of the British people as demonstrated by the outcome of such a referendum ?
Dear Nick Clegg,
Gordon Brown’s Labour government has a policy of making sure that people under the age of 25 get a job. As I am a young person under the age of 25, I am wondering what the Liberal Democrats will do with that policy since the Conservatives may throw the policy out if they get into power.
Thank you for answering my question,
Joseph Gillis.
As a result of the credit crunch and the recession massive cuts in public services have been predicted which ever party comes into power in 2010. These cuts will hurt the vulnerable. How will you help support parents, carers,children and adults with autism and Asperger’s Syndrome access the public services and support they desperately need in order to cope with life?
Why is our mental health and prison system run as though we still have no more understanding of emotional health than we did 50 years ago?
Is it about time we used the explosion of awareness and knowledge of these personal issues to support people in moving on and making our communities safer and more friendly?
Was Straw’s decision to keep the seriously ill Biggs in prison a political one rather than a sensible one, as it clearly wasn’t a humane one ?
Hello Nick.
Recently I divorced my wife. She was having an affair with another woman. It added insult to injury when I discovered that I was unable to divorce her on grounds of adultery. I am not alone in this and the current state of affairs just heaps anguish upon straight spouses who have often gone above and beyond in order to keep their marriage alive. I believe that it would help ease the deep mental suffering, confusion and temporary homophobia that is generated by this situation if this was recognised as adultery. Therefore would you support a change in the law to make same sex relationships ‘count’ as adultery?
Every vote should count. But I’m not alone in finding the
system used in Euro elections faulty because by voting for a party and not a person, those elected will feel their first duty is to their party not their electorate.
The same applies to AV plus for the additional members.
Will you therefore please nail your flag to the mast of the system used throughout Ireland (STV) because it would also prevent the BNP getting MPs because the threshold would be too high for them to qualify ?
Constituencies electing 4 to 6 members would still give Independent candidates a real chance.
Dear Nick,
The LibDems have been on the right side of all of the recent major issues, from Iraq to the Gurkhas to the financial crisis - yet there is no tangible movement in the polls towards you.
Do you agree that to succeed the LibDems need to be able to tie these correct policy calls to a tangible philosophy that voters can hang their hat on?
Just a suggestion - what if you changed your name to The Liberal Party - it would be obvious from your policies and practices that you are still the democratic party, but you could build a philosophy around it - for free but fair trade, against the arbitrary restriction of liberty etc. and create real dividing lines between yourself and the other parties.
I know name changing sounds very New Labour and shallow, but this is modern politics and the main distinguishing feature for the LibDems is that they view problems primarily with a liberal, not dogma driven mindset. All parties can claim to be democratic, they cannot claim to be liberal. Your views would be appreciated.