RESIDENTS in the Stroud district are set to get a rare chance to have their say on the way government is run.

David Drew MP was recently elected to sit on the Government’s Parliamentary Reform Committee, which will discuss how politics could be changed for the 21st century, and he wants to ask his constituents what they want to see changed. The Gazette will be following Mr Drew as he surveys the 40,000 people in his constituency and takes their views to Westminster, in a series called UP FOR DEBATE.

AFTER the damaging MP expenses revelations, British politics has taken a knocking and many people now view Westminster as more of a gentlemen’s club than a serious democratic body.

The scandal has opened up the debate for further reforms to parliament and Mr Drew is going to play a vital role in discussing ways to modernise government.

To gauge the opinion of the public he plans to survey the whole constituency by way of a postal questionnaire. Your views will then be fed back to the committee for debate – giving people living in this area a unique chance to influence politics.

Mr Drew said: "Turnout in the European elections earlier this year was less that 35 per cent.

"In the 2005 general elections, only just over 60 per cent of the population voted. Clearly people do not feel engaged in the political system as it now stands and the recent scandals have done nothing to help.

"We must look again at how we can engage the population. The best way to do this, I believe, is to ask the people what they think and listen to their answers.

"My election to the Parliamentary Reform Committee has given me the perfect opportunity to feed back local views so I hope that everyone will just take a few minutes to complete and return the questionnaire."

The survey, which is being delivered next week, will ask questions such as whether we should allow voting from the age of 16? Should we have a queen or a president? Should it be compulsory to vote or would being able to vote via the internet make you more likely to vote?

For a chance to debate the issues turn up to one of the discussion sessions either at Berkeley Town Hall on September 18 or Kingshill House in Dursley on September 21.

Fact Box – voting systems One important question on the survey asks whether our current voting system should be changed to a more representative system used in European countries. Below is a simple explanation of the systems to help you make your mind up.

First Past the Post – This is the current method. Candidates stand for a single constituency and are elected by a majority of votes cast. This creates majority governments more often, but leaves small parties under-represented.

Proportional Representation: Possibly the most well known alternative. Seats are distributed amongst the parties according to their regional or national share. While this is much more representative, candidates are selected by their national party and lose the connection to their constituency.

AV+ : In the Alternative Vote+, most MPs are still elected for one constituency, but there are around a fifth that are elected as a "top-up", which gives smaller parties a fairer representation nationally.