Today, Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell and Liberal Democrat Peer, Paul Tyler, will launch a “virtual conference” with cross party support aimed at re-engaging people with the political process. Hundreds of people, particularly students, have already registered for the on-line conference.

It should be of real concern to all of us that there are 17 million people in this country who, did not vote in the last general election.

With successive generations turning their back on conventional politics in ever greater numbers, our participatory democracy is beginning to lack participants.

This year, the POWER Commission, has reported on its mission to identify practical ways of reconnecting voters with the political process. Its work has been invaluable, and is all the more credible for the non-partisan ways of reconnecting voters with the political process.

I am therefore particularly pleased to launch Taking Power, which goes live today. From now until October 6th – while the party enthusiasts are gathering for their respective conferences – we will aim to gather people electronically to debate issues raised by the POWER report.

The opportunity to involve people outside the Westminster bubble and help to breathe new life into political debate in the UK is simply too big to pass up.

People who will take part in the debate over the coming weeks include:

• Ming Campbell MP (Liberal Democrat Leader)
• Michael Meacher MP (Former Labour Minister)
• Billy Bragg (singer/songwriter, political campaigner)
• Sir George Young MP (Former Conservative Secretary of State)
• John Bercow MP (Conservative)

To access the debate go to http://www.takingpower.org

As well as being able to join in the online debate, the launch is to be ‘skypecast’ through internet phone provider Skype. To join the call, visit the special page for the planned skypecast.

You can read Ming Campbell’s speech at the launch of the Power Commission report here.

Responding to the announcement that the the Conservatives would seek to replace the Human Rights Act with a US-style Bill of Rights should they win the next election, Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell said:

David Cameron appears confused. In one sentence he supports a Bill of Rights, while in the next he proposes scrapping the Human Rights Act. Finally he says he wants to keep Britain signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Let us be clear what David Cameron is planning. Under the Tory proposals, British citizens would have to take their cases to Strasbourg if they did not feel they had found justice in the British courts.

The whole point of the Human Rights Act is that British citizens have access to the same rights as everyone else, through the British courts.

David Cameron wants to ration those freedoms. There will be a wide set of rights for those wealthy enough to take their cases to Strasbourg, and restricted rights for everyone else.

The Human Rights Act sets out rights drawn up largely by British lawyers within the European Convention after the Second World War.

Only the Liberal Democrats would defend these hard-earned rights and enshrine them within a new constitutional settlement that would include a Bill of Rights and a written British Constitution.

Ming Campbell addressed the Power Commission conference on May 6th, 2006 as follows:

The report of the Power Commission should worry every elected representative in Britain.

Because in their report the Commission says,

“We were struck by just how wide and deep is the contempt felt for formal politics in Britain.”

Well, that doesn’t make me feel too good, nor should it.

I can draw some small comfort from the fact that I agree with many of the sentiments and recommendations in the report.

The report describes a dysfunctional system in which disengagement has reached crisis levels.

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Ming Campbell talks to Nicola Davies and Liz Barker about the women who have influenced him in his life and about his desire to see a more representative House of Commons:

Ming Campbell talks to Nicola Davies and Liz Barker about the women who have influenced him in his life
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