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Progressive Politics NI

West Tyrone - Fixing Our Politics

We should move away from mandatory coalition
The Petition of Concern should be abolished or reformed
We should rid the assembly of Unionist/Nationalist designations
The secrecy of historical party donations should be ended
The legal voting age should change from 18 to 16 years of age
The House of Lords should be reformed so that Lords are elected by the public and not chosen by political parties
Special advisors in Stormont should be selected via employment trawl and not chosen by Ministers
Individuals should be automatically registered to vote upon turning 16
Mail-in voting should be simplified and more accessible
Investigations should take place into the addition of electronic voting to our current system
MLAs should be banned from employing family as staff
Assembly terms should be reduced from 5 years to 4 years to give the public a say in democracy more often
"Polling Day" should be on public/bank holidays and/or be over a period of 2 days to encourage voter turn-out and make elections more accessible
The libel law in Northern Ireland should be reformed
Comments
  • The original purpose of the petition of concern should be retained (protection of minorities) however as it is abused and essentially used as a Veto by the Executive parties to politic then it should be reexamined.
  • The Socialist Party favours the abolition of the House of Lords. The Socialist Party believes special advisors should have a political advisory role only, rather than also being civil servants. While recognising nepotism as a real issue in politics and favouring measures being taken to reduce this, the Socialist Party also believes political representatives should be free to choose staff who represent their political views. This may at times include family members. In general, politics should not be about direct or indirect personal financial gain. Our elected representatives and their staff live on a workers' wage and donate the rest back to campaigns and the fight for a socialist future.