UK democracy needs 'radical surgery', the Lib Dems say

This must include a Bill of Rights, a written constitution and the scrapping of the House of Lords, justice spokesman David Heath said.

UK democracy was "sleep-walking" towards trouble and needed "radical surgery", he told the party's annual conference in Brighton.

The Lib Dems also want to lower the voting age and cap party donations.

'Dysfunctional'

Delegates at the conference voted for parliamentarians and members of the public to come together to draw up a written constitution.

The minimum voting age should be 16 and the House of Lords should be replaced by a "wholly elected Senate", with members sitting for a single 12-year term, they decided.

Mr Heath said: "This country is sleep-walking its way towards losing what it used to treasure most - its democratic system.

"The British constitution, the political system, is dysfunctional, people are disengaged, people do not trust the political system to deliver for them, nor do they trust the men in suits who tell them they should."

Mr Heath said: "There is nothing more important in politics than the way it is run, because if that doesn't work, then nothing works.