A Sign Of Hope
Yes, there is some hope this morning with the release of the Final Report from the Power Commission
• How can politics be revived when fewer and fewer of us support political parties?
• How can voting be encouraged if millions see elections as a charade?
After eighteen months of investigation, the final report of Power is a devastating critique of the state of formal democracy in Britain. Many of us actively support campaigns such as Greenpeace or the Countryside Alliance. And millions more take part in charity or community work. But political parties and elections have been a growing turn-off for years. The cause is not apathy. The problem is that we don’t feel we have real influence over the decisions made in our name. The need for a solution is urgent. And that solution is radical. Nothing less than a major programme of reform to give power back to the people of Britain...
The report is a blueprint to give power to the people, predicting that democracy is in 'meltdown':
It delivers a damning verdict on the first-past-the-post voting system and calls for a "more responsive" electoral system such as that offered by the single transferable vote, in which electors place their candidates in order of preference.
Such a reform, in making every vote count, would help to create "more open, fluid and relevant parties" as opposed to parties that were increasingly seen as too similar.
"A system which reduced the security of safe seats and thus required all parties and candidates to campaign vigorously could prevent some of the [recent] surges of support for the British National Party."
It highlights the inability of Parliament to demand an inquiry into the Iraq war or to receive details from ministers of the cost of their proposals for national identity cards. The authority of MPs should be bolstered with select committees given more authority, Parliament given greater scope to initiate legislation and curbs placed on the power of party whips.
It envisages a reformed House of Lords, 70 per cent of whose members are elected for up to three terms and 30 per cent appointed by independent commissioners.
The report calls for a transfer of authority downwards from central government to Parliament and from Whitehall to town halls. Town halls should be given greater relevance and accountability by gaining the power to raise taxes locally.
But the inquiry also concludes that reorganising democratic systems is not enough and that voters must be allowed a greater sense that they can make a difference to their everyday lives.
To create a "culture of participation", it calls for all public bodies to have a statutory duty to involve the public.
Citizens should be able to initiate law through petitions, hold inquiries and force a parliamentary debate. Parallel processes could be set up for councils and local bodies. MPs should produce annual reports and hold annual general meetings. The inquiry says: "We believe that it is vital not just to reassert one's faith in democracy, but rethink it to meet new challenges."
I couldn't agree more and I'm reading the report and finding it to be thoughtful and inspiring. After yesterday's Blair bollocks, this is as welcome as it is necessary.
I'm sorry, but this report
I'm sorry, but this report is just more of the same.
Go onto their site, and I would expect to be able to participate. Perhaps even show my dissent from their conclusions. Can I do this? Nope, I can just register to show my support. Great form of democracy that is. A bit like GW Bush. If you're not for us, you must be a terrorist ...
They have completely missed the point with their conclusion. Yes, people are apathetic because they don't have any form of control.
More representative democracy doens't work either. When its legal for the whips to effectively bribe bully and black mail members of parliment to toe the party line, we don't have representatives. We have lobby fodder.
The growth of single issue preasure groups is a sure sign that people have lost faith in MPS and local authorities.
The only solution is direct democracy, but that is an anathama to current politicians. I can remember Donald Dewer turning purple about a referenda in Scotland. "That's not the way WE'RE governed" he ranted.
1) Is that the Royal we?
2) Is the 'we' politicials?
Basically he was ranting about being told to do what the electorate wanted.
Until we have that, we don't have a democracy. Increasingly we are moving towards a dictatorship, with the sidelining of the courts and increasing parliment. Labour is flirting again with facism as it did in the 30s.
Nick
@ Nick - to be fair to the
@ Nick - to be fair to the Powers Report, it does recommend curbing the power of the whips.
However, what possible incentive is there, for any politicians to take any notice of the Powers Report whatsoever, except to use it to bolster their propaganda claims that they are already doing things it recommends, just as Gordon Brown has done in today's Guardian ?
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1718651,00.html
Does anyone want to bet that there will not be a single mention of the Powers Report in the media in one month's time ?
The problem is party
The problem is party democracy. Until the electorate get to control politicians and tell them what to do, we aren't going to have true democracy.
It is the marginal constituencies that control the make up of parliment. You don't get to be elected unless you are a party hack (one or two exceptions). The selection process means that another small committee of party hacks do the selection in most cases.
That means the control over our 'representatives' is in the hands a very few people.
That is another form of corruption in the whole process.
Nick
Well, I looked at it
Well, I looked at it briefly. This report will disappear if we let it. But we shouldn't let it disappear if it contains much that we agree with. There's enough good quotes in it by Important People, that we can pull out and use. I liked P37 of Campaign Groups:
Martyn Williams: There’s a barrier of the way in which parliament works. Only this week, we’ve been asking our local members to write to MPs to ask MPs to sign an early day motion, and someone wrote back and said my MP said he can’t sign early day motions, and I had a look on the website, and my initial thought was well parliament’s only been back a week, he probably hasn’t signed any, but I’ll see if he signed any last year and let them know. I had a look at this MP and parliament’s been sitting for something like six days and the MP had signed 32 EDMs and yet he writes to his constituent saying I can’t sign EDMs. So the constituent who doesn’t understand parliament, he doesn’t know what a bloody EDM is, they just think I’ve been led up the garden path by Friends of the Earth, he can’t, parliamentary rules prohibit him, so therefore I can’t blame the MP. So there are all sorts of barriers in all sorts of places.
It would be impolite to call it lying. But it does show that there's something to be said of the public learning not to take their word on anything. Particularly if they have the power to check up on it.
It is certainly interesting,
It is certainly interesting, and obviously I agree with the findings of the report. But does it have any teeth? I suspect Blair will dismiss the report or pay lip service to it. More likely, he will ignore it completetly. How can Blair (or his successors)be forced to give up the powers he has taken for himself? I too believe that direct democracy is the best solution but I can't see it happening. And we all know what Blair's attitude to proportional representation is despite his promise to the Lib Dems in 1997. However, I hope I am wrong and that this will be the cause of genuine and much needed reform.
"Citizens should be able to
"Citizens should be able to initiate law through petitions"
Yuch - I'd much rather have consitutional breaks on government creating laws than letting pressure groups create even more. I can just imagine it, "concerned citizens to outlaw <>"