A rescue plan for politics

Writing in The Guardian newspaper today, Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell argues the case for a written constitution for the United Kingdom.

Ming is calling for a constitutional convention at least 50% of which would be made up of members of the public drawn by lot, part of new proposals for British politics to be debated at the Liberal Democrats’ conference this month.

Ming writes:

If British democracy is not to slip into terminal decline, the public must be alerted to the dangers and motivated to participate in its radical reform. Revival of our representative democracy is too serious to be left to politicians.

At our conference this month, the Liberal Democrats will provide a blueprint for Gordon Brown to follow if he is serious about reforming the obsolete political process. We have developed a 21st-century vision of Britain where people would be trusted, not patronised; involved, not just “consulted”.

The proposals include:

• The introduction of citizens’ juries, similar to those in criminal trials, to assess new public policy
• Strengthening the Human Rights and Freedom of Information Acts
• Stopping new governments from taking power after an election until Parliament has endorsed its legislative programme
• Introducing more scrutiny of government appointments and decisions

Ming’s full article is on the Guardian website.