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Tag Archives: democracy

A Federal Britain: 2. Devolving power and redesigning the Constitution

By Iain Donaldson | Fri 5th June 2026 - 8:57 am

Fair votes are essential, but they are only the first pillar of constitutional renewal. The second pillar is federalism: the redistribution of power away from Westminster and towards the nations and regions where people actually experience the consequences of government decisions.

The United Kingdom is one of the most centralised democracies in the developed world. Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and London possess varying degrees of devolution, yet most of England remains governed through Westminster departments, Whitehall ministries, arm’s-length agencies, and overlapping administrative bodies. Decisions affecting transport, housing, infrastructure, skills, economic development, and public services are often taken hundreds of miles away from the communities they affect.

The result is confusion, duplication, and weak accountability. When services fail, it is frequently unclear whether responsibility lies with ministers, local authorities, regulators, agencies, or quasi-independent bodies. Democracy becomes less meaningful when citizens cannot identify who is responsible.

Federalism addresses this by clearly defining where power sits.

Westminster would become a genuine federal parliament responsible for defence, foreign affairs, national security, macroeconomic stability, currency, and constitutional matters. Rather than simultaneously acting as both a UK parliament and, in practice, England’s legislature, it would focus on genuinely federal responsibilities.

Below it would sit state-level governments: Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, London, and a series of English regional states.

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Posted in News | Also tagged decentralisation, federalism and politics | 18 Comments

A Federal Britain: 1. Renewing democracy through fair representation

By Iain Donaldson | Thu 4th June 2026 - 10:25 am

The United Kingdom is undergoing a quiet constitutional breakdown. Not in the dramatic sense of institutional collapse, but in a slower and more corrosive way: voters increasingly feel unrepresented, power remains concentrated in Westminster to a degree unusual among modern democracies, and the link between democratic choice and real-world decision-making has weakened.

These are not separate problems. They form a single constitutional question: how can a modern, diverse, multi-national state remain democratic, fair, and stable when many of its institutions were designed for a different era?

The answer lies in three connected pillars: fair representation, decentralised power, and fiscal accountability. Each alone is insufficient. Together, they form a democratic redesign of the United Kingdom. The first pillar is electoral reform.

A functioning democracy depends on a simple principle: votes should translate into representation. In the United Kingdom, that principle is routinely broken by First Past the Post.

The 2024 General Election once again demonstrated the scale of the distortion. Parties receiving millions of votes secured only minimal representation, while others translated relatively modest vote shares into overwhelming parliamentary majorities. This is not merely a technical flaw. It is a structural weakness that undermines confidence in democratic legitimacy.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged electoral reform, federalism and politics | 12 Comments

Ed Davey speech: We can’t let Trump’s America become Farage’s Britain

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 29th April 2026 - 7:45 pm

Ed Davey announced today a package of new Lib Dem policy aimed at ensuring that foreign actors have less influence in our politics.

He called for:

Banning payments from X and other social media platforms to politicians in the UK, including MPs.
Prohibiting anyone who has served a foreign administration from donating to UK political parties, think tanks, or campaign groups.
Banning foreign-funded online political adverts altogether.

The party will pursue these through amendments to the Representation of the People Bill.

Watch here.

The text is below

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged MAGA, political funding, reform uk and twitter | 5 Comments

Mathew on Monday: Labour has lost its way – and the country is paying the price

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 9th February 2026 - 4:30 pm

Watching the unfolding political drama in Westminster over recent days, you could be forgiven for wondering if the British public have been dropped into an episode of ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ rather than living real lives under a Labour government. Instead of focusing on the pressing challenges facing everyday Britons – from the cost of living to the NHS crisis – the spotlight has been firmly fixed on internal Labour turmoil, bitter factional rows and the fate of its own leadership.

The resignation on Sunday of Sir Keir Starmer’s Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney, amid the controversy over Peter Mandelson’s appointment as UK Ambassador to the United States, was always going to make headlines. But the speed with which that story has dominated the political coverage tells you everything you need to know about where Labour’s priorities lie. McSweeney stepped down taking “full responsibility” for advising on the appointment – a move that critics argue has damaged trust in politics itself.

And, as if one senior departure wasn’t enough, the Prime Minister’s director of communications, Tim Allan, has today also quit fewer than twenty-four hours later. In a terse statement, Allan said he was making way for a “new No.10 team.”.

But what the public see is not reinvigoration – it’s retreat, upheaval and instability at the heart of government.

All this comes at a time when families across the country are still struggling with inflationary pressures on essentials and long delays in accessing NHS care. Hard-pressed workers, young people, and pensioners do not wake up each morning thinking about Downing Street personnel changes – they worry about whether their energy bills are manageable, whether their children’s surgeries are being scheduled, or whether their parents will be left waiting hours in A&E.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged defection, greens, labour leadership and uk-china relations | 14 Comments

What democratic maturity asks of political parties

By Jack Meredith | Tue 3rd February 2026 - 10:25 am

“A democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living”.

These were the words of John Dewey, from his 1916 book, Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education.

Without prior knowledge of Dewey’s work, I found that he captured my belief in democracy and its purpose in just one sentence. I have never believed that democracy is simply ticking a box or a group of people simply making decisions on behalf of others. It is about individuals making a collective decision about how their country should be run, what their society should look like, which views are acceptable to express and share, and which should be condemned. That decision changes over time. For political parties, this means democratic responsibility does not end when votes are counted. Accepting defeat is only the beginning; what follows is a test of patience, humility, and long-term commitment.

I also believe that political parties can never dictate society’s direction, no matter how much they want to. They must accept that, in a democracy, they are participants, not directors or masters. This means society can move in directions parties resist, and the response cannot be to burn down the house or to abandon principles in a rush to recover lost ground, but instead to embrace the loss and ask, “What can we learn from this?” It’s very easy to say, “Well, the voters were prejudiced?”, and there very well may be a degree of truth to that thought. But it doesn’t mean parties allow themselves to stay in a permanent sulk or adopt those views. Blaming the electorate and abandoning principles are, in different ways, attempts to avoid the more complex work of democratic reflection.

For the Liberal Democrats, that means democratic responsibility does not end when votes are counted; it also includes how we behave, organise, and learn in the space between elections.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged political parties and uk politics | 13 Comments

Mathew on Monday: Illiberal Labour and the War on Local Choice

By Mathew Hulbert | Mon 26th January 2026 - 4:30 pm

One of the most important questions in politics is a simple one: do those in power trust people to make decisions for themselves? Not to always decide wisely, not to always choose outcomes that ministers like, but to choose at all.

Increasingly, this Labour government appears to answer that question with a quiet but unmistakable no. Across justice, democracy, local government, policing, and even its own internal party processes, a consistent pattern is emerging: when local choice becomes inconvenient or risky, it is removed. That should worry anyone who cares about liberal democracy.

Let’s start with the justice system. Proposals to curtail the right to a trial by jury in significant categories of cases are often presented as pragmatic reforms, designed to ease backlogs or improve efficiency. But jury trial is not a procedural luxury – it is one of the most profound expressions of public participation in the administration of justice. It embeds the principle that the state does not sit in judgement alone; it must persuade ordinary citizens beyond reasonable doubt.

When that right is narrowed for the sake of administrative convenience, the public is not being protected – it is being excluded.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged accountability, by-election winners, conservative party and North Cotswolds | 17 Comments

Defending Our Future: The Blueprint For The Lib Dems To Modernise and Protect British Democracy

By Tushar Aneja | Mon 26th January 2026 - 10:26 am

As Reform continues to lead the polls, we are witnessing a movement that mirrors Trump’s MAGA movement in the US, unlawfully arresting, detaining, and sometimes deporting non-white residents, including U.S. citizens and legal residents. What we’re seeing from this administration is an attempt to ethnically cleanse the country of non-white people. With the clear ties between Farage and MAGA, Reform is not just any political rival. Their ascent to government would initiate a direct assault on British democratic values. It won’t be long before non-white British residents and citizens are targeted in the same way.

A Reform government is existentially dangerous because our democratic institutions and guardrails are uniquely vulnerable to an authoritarian takeover. Whilst the UK prides itself on stability, structural features like FPTP allow an extremist minority to seize absolute power with as little as 30% of the vote. That is fundamentally undemocratic. When you combine that with a House of Lords that lacks democratic legitimacy and an uncodified constitution that relies on the “good chaps” theory of government, our long-standing constitutional crisis fosters a ripe environment for a demagogue to bypass the traditional norms and conventions that hold our democracy together. More precisely, Reform and the Conservatives have already pledged to repeal the Human Rights Act and withdraw from the ECHR; the core risk is that a Reform or Reform/Conservative coalition could secure a substantial parliamentary majority with a voteshare below 50%. This simple majority would then be used to push through an authoritarian power grab similar to what we’re seeing in the US.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged constitutional reform | 32 Comments

Starmer must address the Nation

By George Cunningham | Mon 8th December 2025 - 10:56 am

In case the message hasn’t quite got through to our European Leaders, you can’t voice it more starkly than in the new U.S. National Security Strategy.

The new strategy shows the U.S. administration’s contempt towards the European Union (unsurprisingly, given it is a powerful economic competitor). It believes the EU is endangering European civilisation (e.g. “migration policies”, “loss of national identities”, “censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition”), and declares that the U.S. will therefore “cultivate resistance” to save us, which will de facto lead to increasingly interfering in our internal politics to encourage right-wing governments getting elected.

As I have said before, Europe’s leaders have been too obsequious in their pandering to the current U.S. administration. The reason is obvious. We are beholden to the U.S. for many aspects of our security. Yet now we must think how we can manage the Ukraine war and European security on our own. We must bolster urgently our European defences, sufficiently to deter the expansion of Russia hybrid warfare against Europe and its evolution into kinetic warfare, threatening the lives of our own citizens.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged europe and resilience | 27 Comments

Britain must crush Musk

By Rob Blackie | Fri 17th October 2025 - 8:55 am

What should our democracy do when a very rich man encourages violence on our streets?

That’s the question that Britain faces today with Elon Musk’s recent behaviour.

Traditionally, this hasn’t been a problem. While media tycoons like Rupert Murdoch had influence, they did not provoke criminality. They didn’t call for violence on the streets. They didn’t transfer cash to criminals. And their companies didn’t openly flout the law.

Today things have changed. A few weeks ago, Elon Musk spoke to a nationalist march in London calling for a dissolution of Parliament, and going on to say:

My message is to them: if this continues, that violence is going to come to you, you will have no choice. You’re in a fundamental situation here. Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die, that’s the truth, I think.

There is no reasonable doubt that this was Elon Musk calling for violence on Britain’s streets. Ignoring this is to ignore our ears.

And if he had said this on the stage in Westminster, rather than beaming in from America, it is possible that Musk would have been arrested for encouraging violence.

Yet the British government did virtually nothing in response. A few days later the Prime Minster complained, but didn’t go as far as taking action.

This isn’t just a one off.

Last week, Elon Musk revealed that he was bankrolling Tommy Robinson, an extremist with a string of criminal convictions.

And, as British Future’s Sunder Katwala has amply documented, Twitter continues to allow extreme racism, and effectively refuses to enforce the law against racist abuse.

The British government can’t let this keep happening. If we allow a foreign billionaire to encourage law breaking, it could lead to deaths on our streets.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged elon musk and social media | 1 Comment

The Tory Party’s new ‘enemy within ‘: why Robert Jenrick’s assault on judiciary independence demands a liberal response

By Jack Meredith | Wed 8th October 2025 - 9:13 am

In recent months, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor Robert Jenrick has launched what appears more like a full-blown political attack on the independence of Britain’s judiciary than a policy critique. What was once thought unthinkable, British politicians casting judges as part of a “deep state conspiracy”, is increasingly being normalised.

This assault is not merely a constitutional quirk. It’s a deliberate populist power play: by undermining faith in the judiciary, Jenrick is supporting a weakening of its executive authority. For Liberal Democrats and all defenders of liberal democracy, this is a moment when constitutional guardianship must become a political act.

This isn’t the first time legal professionals have been attacked by the Tory Party, from Marco Longhi’s attack on “woke lefty lawyers” to Suella Braverman vowing to use her previous position as Home Secretary to bring “crooked immigration lawyers to justice“. While both were equally disgraceful, these were attacks on individual lawyers, rather than the entire judiciary system.

But now, Jenrick has said the quiet part out loud. Holding a peruke, Robert Jenrick spoke at the 2025 Conservative Party conference about how Britain has “a problem”, that he has discovered through his own research, “dozens of judges” having links to open border charities and pressure groups, and have spent their entire careers “fighting to keep illegal migrants in this country”, and compared these judges to a crooked football referee. He ends his tirade by announcing the Conservative Party won’t reform immigration tribunals, but instead, abolish them entirely.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged checks and balances, judicial independence and populism | 7 Comments

We need better political decision-making and accountability

By Judy Abel | Thu 28th August 2025 - 10:25 am

Government has no money of its own, yet successive governments have spent taxpayers’ money on failed projects with impunity – and immunity!

When considering one of the recent less than helpful policy choices foisted on us by Labour, putting up National Insurance on employers’ contributions – which has in practice stopped many companies from taking on new employees despite Labour pinning everything on growth! – it got me thinking about how poor policy decision-making often is at the top. Presented with the key facts, almost anyone could have told Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves (and they did) that this NI hike on employers was a poor idea, yet the decision was made by top politicians earning six-figure salaries!

Let’s think about some of the other poor and costly policy decisions of recent years. It’s actually hard to know where to start!

Most Lib Dems would struggle to approve of any of the measures enacted by the Thatcher Government, but selling off council housing, a deeply ideological move, was perhaps one of their most reckless ideas. The lost pool of social housing was never replaced so, decades later, we have many less well-off families permanently locked out of affordable housing and, tragically, more homeless people than ever on our streets.

And what about the Iraq War? There never were any weapons of mass destruction and Tony Blair only really agreed to stand shoulder to shoulder with President Bush on the War because of the questionable ‘special relationship’. Think what this cost the UK in terms of lost lives and billions wasted on military combat. The 2016 Chilcot Enquiry concluded, “The consequences of the invasion and of the conflict within Iraq which followed are still being felt in Iraq and the wider Middle East, as well as in the UK”. Yet somehow only the Lib Dems could see in advance that this War was deeply wrong.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged accountability | 38 Comments

A Monument to the Past, a Barrier to the Future

By Barry Smith | Mon 23rd June 2025 - 9:42 am

“We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us,” said Winston Churchill, defending the decision to retain the adversarial layout of the House of Commons during its post-World War II reconstruction. Looking at the way our political system functions today, it’s hard not to agree with him.

Entering the Palace of Westminster, one is immediately immersed in centuries of history. The very walls radiate tradition. Westminster Hall — where Queen Elizabeth II lay in state — dates back over 900 years. The weight of British history is tangible, steeped in the legacy …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged palace of westminster | 15 Comments

William Wallace writes: How should liberals mark VE Day

By Lord William Wallace | Wed 23rd April 2025 - 11:55 am

Once the local elections are over, commemoration of the 80th anniversary of VE Day on May 8th – the end of the second world war – will provide a focus for public attention and local celebrations. Many of us will be caught up in ceremonies, street parties or receptions. I will be singing in a commemorative concert in Westminster Hall (with Mike German, Joan Walmsley and 100 others in the Parliament Choir; do listen to it, broadcast on Classic FM).

The government and the media will want to make this a patriotic occasion. What additional twist should Liberal Democrats add to this? I suggest that we should emphasise what Britain and its American ally declared they were fighting the war for: for political and democratic values, for an open international order and for social democracy at home – all values that are now being challenged by President Trump in the USA and by populists in Britain and in other democratic states.

I’ve just re-read President Roosevelt’s ‘Four Freedoms’ speech, and the Atlantic Charter that he and Winston Churchill signed on a warship off Newfoundland in August 1941. Together these set out the shared aims for which the UK and the USA fought the war. Roosevelt’s speech to Congress on January 6th 1941 declared that:

We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression–everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way–everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want–which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear–which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor–anywhere in the world. …

The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.

Five months before, Roosevelt and Churchill had signed the ‘Atlantic Charter’ – drafted by the British, revised by the Americans – which set out their shared aims in the war. ‘…their countries seek no aggrandizement, territorial or other; they desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned; … they desire to bring about the fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic field with the object of securing, for all, improved labor standards, economic advancement and social security;….’

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged featured, freedom, liberalism, social democracy, united states and ve day | 7 Comments

Why populism thrives and how we beat it – Part 2

By Mo Waqas | Tue 11th February 2025 - 7:30 am

In Part 1, I introduced some ideas about how we beat populism, focusing on immigration. Today, I am going to look at the NHS, the economy and our political system.

Saving the NHS from Populist Scare Tactics

The NHS is under siege, and the populists love it. They use its struggles to push their own agenda, claiming that the solution is to privatise services or cut back on waste. But the NHS isn’t failing because of inefficiency or because too many people are using it. It is failing because governments have underfunded it for years, forcing doctors and nurses to work under impossible conditions while patients wait months for treatment.

The Conservatives say they are investing in the NHS, but in reality, they have allowed it to be slowly privatised, handing contracts to private companies and driving doctors out of the system. Reform UK claims it will get rid of NHS “red tape” but offers no actual funding or plan to stop the crisis. If we want to save our health service, we need real investment, not slogans. That means recruiting and retaining more doctors and nurses by increasing pay and improving working conditions. It means guaranteeing a GP appointment within a week, so people don’t turn to A&E out of desperation. It means properly integrating social care with the NHS so elderly and vulnerable patients aren’t left stranded in hospital beds because there’s nowhere for them to go. It means shifting the focus to prevention, tackling long-term health issues like obesity and mental illness before they become crises.

Fighting Economic Populism – Real Prosperity, Not Empty Promises

Nothing fuels populist anger more than economic insecurity. Wages are stagnant, housing is unaffordable, and bills keep rising. People feel like they’re working harder for less while the rich get richer. And they’re right—because the system is rigged.

Reform UK’s answer is to slash taxes and cut regulations. The Conservatives promise tax cuts too, despite 14 years of economic stagnation. Both parties push the idea that lower taxes will magically create jobs and growth, but we’ve seen this experiment fail again and again. Cutting taxes for the rich does nothing for working people.

The real solution is an economy that rewards hard work, not just wealth. That means raising wages so that people earn enough to live, not just survive. It means fixing the housing crisis so young people can afford a home again. It means backing small businesses so local entrepreneurs can thrive instead of being crushed by big corporations. It means making the tax system fairer, so billionaires and multinationals pay their share instead of shifting the burden onto working people.

Restoring Trust – Cleaning Up the Corrupt Political System

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Posted in News | Also tagged economy, NHS, political system and populism | 16 Comments

10 January 2025 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Fri 10th January 2025 - 10:30 pm

Citizens Advice: pensioners had “legs cut out from underneath them” after Winter Fuel Payment scrapped
Local election delays: Lib Dems accuse Conservative councils of “running scared” and “silencing democracy”
Reeves in China: Chancellor needs to return and announce “plan B” for growth
Cole-Hamilton calls for network of drug consumption rooms ahead of Glasgow facility opening

Citizens Advice: pensioners had “legs cut out from underneath them” after Winter Fuel Payment scrapped

Responding to Citizens Advice saying that they have seen a surge in households seeking help with energy bills in 2024, Liberal Democrat Work and Pensions spokesperson Steve Darling MP said:

People are being hammered by energy bill rises with millions of vulnerable pensioners especially struggling after the government scrapped the Winter Fuel Payment for the vast majority.

Older people, many already choosing between heating and eating, had their legs cut out from underneath them by the government’s cruel decision to slash this vital support.

The government needs to recognise their disastrous error and get these vulnerable pensioners the support they deserve or risk millions suffering.

Local election delays: Lib Dems accuse Conservative councils of “running scared” and “silencing democracy”

The Liberal Democrats have accused Conservative councils of “running scared” and “silencing democracy” as the deadline for councils to apply for election postponement expires.

The Government gave councils until today to say if they would prefer to cancel May’s local elections while devolution plans for changes to local authorities, with many set to become unitary, are discussed.

Almost all councils that have called for elections to be cancelled are Conservative-run, including several in areas like Devon and Surrey where the Liberal Democrats won swathes of seats from the Conservatives at the General Election.

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Posted in News, Press releases and Scotland | Also tagged Alex Cole-Hamilton, daisy cooper, drugs policy, ed davey, steve darling, uk economy and winter fuel payment | 1 Comment

Welcome to my day: 6 January 2025 – notes from the Democratic People’s Republic of Elon…

By Mark Valladares | Mon 6th January 2025 - 7:30 am

So, for this Day Editor at least, another year starts and, in my case, in a country ill at ease with itself, the United States. It’s an insular and curiously transactional politics here, where the impact of its leadership is seen mostly in terms of what America does to others rather than in terms of how it is perceived by allies and enemies alike. There is no room for doubt or uncertainty in the minds of the radicals soon to be running this country.

Which inevitably brings me to the recent antics of Elon Musk, whose astonishing firehose of untruths and bombast on X, aimed at the politicians he feels he has bought and paid for, and those in other countries by whom he feels threatened, have done so much to alienate his “customers” internationally. There is clearly something wrong with him, or perhaps there always was and we just hadn’t appreciated it. But his apparent desire to overturn democratically elected governments that displease him isn’t going to go away anytime soon.

Labour seem determined to humour him, which is evidently going to fail. When someone is as astonishingly wealthy as Musk is, and so unused to being refused, he has no need to play by any of the usual rules of debate. And with a media platform under his control which is increasingly a meeting place for some of the most unpleasant elements of our society, the risks that individuals or groups act to advance his beliefs and wishes are genuine. As he has seemingly become more and more radicalised, so has his ability to radicalise others.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged elon musk | 26 Comments

Welcome to my day: 2 December 2024 – is Elon Musk coming for us all?

By Mark Valladares | Mon 2nd December 2024 - 7:30 am

If, like me, you’ve been an observer of American politics over the decades, one thing that is glaringly obvious is the amount of money that washes through the system, paying for advertising, cadres of professional staff and all of the paraphernalia that make electoral politics increasingly a game for the wealthy or those with access to the wealthy. One candidate in a Senate or Gubernatorial race can, if they’re unlucky, spend as much as the British political parties combined in a General Election campaign.

We already have cause for concern over the influence of a small number of multi-millionaires on our politics. The Conservative Party has become increasingly dependent on a small number of people to finance its campaigns, leading to suggestions of Russian influence and interference. And, of course, there have been plenty of accusations made regarding Nigel Farage’s links with senior Russian officials. But the cost of campaigns has increased, and with party memberships in historic decline, relying on membership fees is a one way journey to financial, and thus political, oblivion.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged elon musk | 13 Comments

Could sortition help to address voter apathy and public distrust in politics?

By Samuel Jackson | Mon 28th October 2024 - 10:12 am

The theme of the 2024 General Election was meant to be change. Apart from the end of the chaotic Conservative government and its replacement by a Labour one, the course seems to have been stayed in many ways. Labour is pursuing austerity measures similar to those carried out by the Conservatives, and seems to have become mired in scandal, notably over freebies such as football and concert tickets. And Starmer has abandoned many positions which he endorsed as a Labour leadership candidate now that he is Prime Minister.

The 2024 General Election proved to be one of the most disproportionate in UK history. Voter turnout fell below 60%, Labour won over 400 seats with a lower share of the vote than they won at the two previous elections, and the two major parties won their lowest combined vote share since 1918. Such election outcomes and such behaviour by politicians have brought public trust in politics to record lows. This and resulting voter apathy can create a negative feedback loop where lower turnout can diminish the legitimacy of decision-making, leading to great distrust in politics.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged sortition | 8 Comments

Observations of an Expat: How Did We Get Here?

By Tom Arms | Sat 6th July 2024 - 10:06 am

It has been a bad week for democracy. In fact it has been a bad year for democracy. The only exception is the UK. But don’t worry Britain’s time will come.

Now, however, the rise of the populist far-right just about everywhere else is dominating the world’s headlines. Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally is knocking on France’s gates to power. A conservative-dominated US Supreme Court has granted serial law breaker and liar Donald Trump immunity from prosecution. A cognitively-impaired Joe Biden is endangering democracy by clinging to power. A far-right anti-immigrant government has been formed in the Netherlands.

And those are only the most recent examples. In Israel, Hungary, India, Slovakia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Austria, and Germany the far-right is either in government or growing in power and influence.

So how did we get here and where are we going?

Back in the naughty nineties everything looked so different. The collapse of the Soviet Empire appeared to be a great victory for liberal democracy, globalism, free markets and capitalism. We won, and countries around the world flocked to democracy’s banner.

First in the queue were the members of the old Soviet system, with Russia right at the front. That was the first problem. The transition from a Soviet-style command economy and from dictatorship to democracy was more difficult than envisaged.

A broken system was replaced not with capitalist prosperity but with hyper-inflation, economic breakdown and mass unemployment. Life expectancy in Russia fell with up to five million excess adult deaths between 1991 and 2001. Birth rates collapsed and organized crime grabbed the levers of power.

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Posted in News | 8 Comments

Which dangers to democracy threaten most?

By Lord William Wallace | Tue 12th March 2024 - 9:54 am

‘Democracy’, Boris Johnson wrote in his weekly Daily Mail; column on March 8th, ‘is always more fragile than you think.’ But what are the most direct threats to British democracy which we face at present?

For the Prime Minister, Michael Gove, many other Conservatives and the right-wing press, the most urgent threats come from Islamist terrorism and disorder on the streets. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations in London may have been non-violent but are seen to be intimidating; climate-change activists have blocked streets, and put banners on the Prime Minister’s constituency home. Gove will be issuing a new definition of extremism later this week, which is expected to focus on Muslim organizations and direct-action groups for ecological issues; how far it will also flag up right-wing extremists remains contested within the government and the right-wing media.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged peaceful protest | 34 Comments

Facing the facts: a reality check for the Prime Minister

By Mo Waqas | Sat 2nd March 2024 - 8:48 am

In his recent address the Prime Minister expressed concerns about internal forces threatening our nation’s unity.

This led me to ponder whether these forces include those that fuelled the divisive Brexit atmosphere, spearheaded by figures like Nigel Farage and the 21st-century version of Enoch Powell.

Our country has grappled with division since the Conservative Party’s risky move in Europe, fostering deep-seated animosity. It’s crucial to recognize that this hatred isn’t isolated to a particular group, Palestinian or Israeli; it has festered for over a decade.

Austerity measures, police force cuts, and reductions in vital social services initiated this discord. The poor grew poorer, while the affluent one percent thrived, with media playing a pivotal role in alienating the most marginalized in our society.

Does Mr. Sunak genuinely believe the British people have forgotten his former Home Secretary’s statement. Suella Braverman asserted:

The British people are compassionate. We will always support those genuinely homeless. But our streets cannot be overrun by rows of tents, housing people—many from abroad—living on the streets as a lifestyle choice.

So, I find myself questioning the Prime Minister: Who chooses to be homeless, and who chooses to be born poor? The reality is, no one does.

Under this Conservative government, marginalised society faces relentless attacks. As the party falters, we find ourselves in the grip of a cost-of-living crisis, bringing ordinary folks to their knees. Our most vulnerable can’t afford to heat their homes, facing exorbitant electricity and gas bills. For many, it became a choice between heating or eating.

In a nation like Great Britain, such desperate measures should not be necessary.

The real problem, Mr. Sunak, lies in your party’s jingoism and love for populism. In Great Britain, we celebrate our diversity. When the Prime Minister urges us to face down extremists, will he start with his own party?

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged islamophobia, racism and rishi sunak | 4 Comments

How rotten is our democracy?

By Lord William Wallace | Wed 13th September 2023 - 11:49 am

This is the question Isabel Hardman poses at the beginning of her review of Chris Bryant’s new book, Code of Conduct: why we need to fix Parliament – and how to do it. Hardman’s own book, Why we get the Wrong Politicians (first published in 2018 and updated for a paperback edition in 2022) had already covered much of the same ground – on the ‘toxic culture’ of Westminster politics, the power of the whips over individual MPs, the neglect of parliamentary scrutiny of government legislation and decisions in favour of efforts to become ministers, and above all the strains on personal relations and family life.

Bryant – chair of the Commons Committees on Standards and Privileges until this month – writes in an easy, personal style, but his underlying anger at the corruption and the toxic culture of Westminster politics is evident. He starts with the Commons’ handling of Owen Paterson’s censure for ‘paid advocacy’ for companies which were paying him more than £100,000 a year. 250 MPs voted to reject the Standards Committee recommendations, with support from Johnson as prime minister and Rees-Mogg as leader of the House. ‘I felt that Parliament itself was on trial’ in that vote.

In the context of historical comparisons with past parliamentary scandals, he concludes that ‘this is indeed the worst Parliament in our history. More than twenty MPs have been suspended or have left under a cloud. Rules have been flouted… Ministers have lied and refused to correct the record…’ There is ‘a widespread sense that politicians believe the rules don’t apply to them.’

He sees ‘something rotten’ in the structure of the Westminster system, with far more ministers than in comparable democracies, dependent on prime ministerial patronage. Unchecked prime ministerial power allows corruption to spread through PPI contracts, through the allocation of levelling-up funds and through the appointment of friends to paid public offices. He details the lies Boris Johnson as PM made to Parliament, the bullying habits of government whips, the conflicts of interest that arise through moves from ministerial office to private directorships and consultancies. He reports the massive outside earnings that former ministers and PMs make – noting that in the first three months of 2023 Johnson registered £3,287,293 in outside earnings.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged book reviews and chris bryant | 6 Comments

Improving the quality of democracy is not just about proportional representation

By Paul Reynolds | Tue 10th January 2023 - 10:24 am

Of all the major ‘-isms’ that pervade our politics in the UK, democracy (or ‘democratism’ if you prefer) is perhaps the least written about. That may at last be about to change.

It is perhaps mostly taken for granted in UK political discourse that democracy is ‘A Good Thing’. Today, only the very brave would argue publicly that democracy is ‘A Bad Thing’ per se.

Defenders of UK-style democracy however have to gloss over aspects of the political system. These include the constitutional monarchy and the broader role of the Royal Prerogative, the unelected House of Lords, and tight executive control of parliament. They do rather mute the UK’s moral high ground when promoting democracy abroad.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged proportional representation | 30 Comments

“Democracy in action” in Welwyn Garden City

By Michal Siewniak | Mon 21st November 2022 - 9:28 am

Frustrated. Bored. Tired. Disengaged. I wondered quite a bit whether being involved in the Parliament Week, for the 9th year running, made any sense. As a Cllr, I’ve had countless conversations with residents about the UK Parliament and it is and was clear that many people still feel disillusioned and angry with the way our democratic institution works, but more importantly with the conduct and behaviour of some of our MP’s and “Parliamentarian chaos” of the last 2-3 years.

However, after a bit of “intellectual effort”, I managed to convince myself that every step and every simple initiative can help to restore our faith in democracy. Every moment or conversation, even in passing, can bring back at least some political hope for us and people in our communities up and down the country.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged UK Parliament week | 1 Comment

Wendy Chamberlain slams PM’s “appalling attempt to rig the rules”

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 28th May 2022 - 11:15 am

You would think, wouldn’t you, that when the culture of your Government has been slammed in a report which outlined disgraceful behaviour, you would be absolutely mortified and would make sure that your actions showed that you were truly sorry. Especially when you had been saying so at length and you knew that nobody believed a word of your apology.

Well, you could think that of virtually any other PM than Boris Johnson. But the current incumbent’s capacity for brazen disregard for rules or accountability is second to none. We saw this when he tried to change the rules to save his mate Owen Paterson last Autumn.

Yesterday, Boris Johnson watered down both the Ministerial Code and the role of the so-called “Independent Adviser.” The Guardian reports:

The prime minister faced a barrage of criticism after he amended the rules on Friday to make clear that ministers will not always be expected to resign for breaching the code of conduct. Under new sanctions, they could apologise or temporarily lose their pay instead.

Johnson also blocked his independent ethics chief, Christopher Geidt, from gaining the power to launch his own investigations, and rewrote the foreword to the ministerial code, removing all references to honesty, integrity, transparency and accountability.

Our Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain is reported as saying that this was an:

appalling attempt by Boris Johnson to rig the rules to get himself off the hook.

It seems the Conservatives have learned nothing from the Owen Paterson scandal.

It has been clear for some time that the Government doesn’t care that accountability and justice are seen to be done where its own behaviour is concerned. With these moves they are effectively giving themselves the right to mark their own homework. The legitimacy of any Government depends on having some sort of check on its power.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged boris johnson, ministerial code, wendy chamberlain and wera hobhouse | 3 Comments

Moran: Backsliding democracies from the USA to Ukraine

By Layla Moran MP | Tue 19th April 2022 - 5:26 pm

At the end of last year, the United States of America was added to the International IDEA’s annual list of “backsliding” democracies for the first time, pointing to a “visible deterioration” it said began in 2019.

Remarkably, the number of backsliding democracies has doubled in the past decade with more than a quarter of people alive today now living in one of these democracies. What’s more, in addition to “established democracies” such as the US, this list of backsliding democracies includes EU member states Hungary, Poland and Slovenia.

And it gets worse.

According to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance the number of people living in fragile democracies rises to more than two in three with the addition of authoritarian or “hybrid” regimes.

To put it more succinctly, democracy is in retreat.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged featured, layla moran mp and ukraine | 9 Comments

Review: Revolution of our Times

By Marguerita Morton | Tue 12th April 2022 - 11:55 am

Revolution of our Times is a truly powerful film screened in London in March 2022.

The film shows real footage of more than one million people on the streets of Hong Kong protesting the introduction of the Extradition Bill about to be enacted against Hong Kong citizens whose only act was to upset the Chinese Communist State.

The spontaneous protest demonstrated how unpopular the proposed extradition law to mainland China was. Witnessed by the arbitrary arrest of three booksellers in Hong Kong who dared to sell banned publications. The people now called for the repeal of the extradition law as a breach of the Sino British Joint Declaration which guaranteed Hongkongers their freedoms for another 50 years from the handover of HK to China in 1997.

The crowds consisted of men, women, students as well as ordinary workers. There were peaceful ranks of protesters with banners and umbrellas just using their voice. As the numbers of protesters swelled, the main downtown districts of HK were filled with their chants for their five key demands: to withdraw the extradition bill; to stop labelling protesters as “rioters”; to drop charges against protesters; to conduct an independent inquiry into police behaviour; to implement genuine universal suffrage for both the Legislative Council and the Chief Executive.

What started as peaceful protest soon became a standoff between the people and the police. More and more strong armed tactics were being used including the use of teargas, rubber bullets, water canon and eventually live fire. People were incensed and they went directly to the LegCo building where they broke into the main chamber causing damage to property.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged films, hong kong, protests and reviews | 2 Comments

A Liberal Democrat Case for Universal Civic Duty Voting

By Samuel Jackson | Mon 14th February 2022 - 11:29 am

Liberal Democrats are staunchly opposed to the Conservative government’s Elections Bill currently moving through Parliament. Its provisions of mandating photo ID at polling stations and imposing the use of First Past the Post for mayoral and police and crime commissioner elections are actively harmful to democracy and solely for the benefit of the incumbent government.

It should go without saying that this bill is diametrically opposed to our own party’s constitutional and electoral reform policies including the adoption of single transferable vote and removing barriers to exercising the right to vote. However, in the face of undemocratic legislation, we as a party should contemplate advocating for stronger protective measures, namely universal civic duty voting, otherwise known as compulsory voting.

Turnout for British general elections during the twenty-first century has never surpassed 70%. This contrasts sharply with the 90%+ turnout rates in Australia and Belgium, with the former having adopted UCDV in response to low turnout of under 60% at its 1922 federal election. With FPTP skewing results and breeding voter dissatisfaction, no party in the UK having won more than 50% of votes cast since the Conservative did in 1935, governments are formed or decisions made via referenda that reflect the will of only a plurality of the electorate. For government to be more reflective of the will of the people, greater turnout should be encouraged, with UCDV probably being the most effective method of achieving it.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged voting reform | 19 Comments

UK Parliament Week and the Polish Saturday School in Welwyn Garden City

By Michal Siewniak | Mon 8th November 2021 - 11:32 am

I did wonder whether I should bother
I did wonder, whether inspiring young people to learn and find out more about the role of the Parliament, makes sense
I did wonder whether I should simply “drop” my passion for the civic agenda and look for another “hobby”

The most recent events in the Houses of Parliament “wobbled” my desire to do my little part and absolute commitment to enhancing the democratic process. Another scandal, another U-turn, another opportunistic attempt from the government to change the rules. “One rule for us, one for them”, we heard a lot this week.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged UK Parliament week | 1 Comment

How sound is our democracy?

By Steve Trevethan | Thu 4th November 2021 - 5:04 pm

The ongoing Paterson affair offers us the opportunity and motivation to analyse our fragile and imperfect version of democracy.

That MPs can, and sometimes do, receive large sums of money to represent the interests of organisations and individuals shows that, if unchecked and effectively unregulated, we are in, or on the way to being, a plutocracy and not a robust, deep democracy.

It would be more efficient to double the pay of MPs and ensure that they did not take monies from the fat wallets, individual or corporate.

The decreasing popular support of political parties makes them ever more likely to be taken over by the fat wallets, which also takes us along the path to plutocracy.

Limiting contributions to a ratio based on the minimum wage would limit this trend. Similarly, paying MPs on a ratio fixed to the minimum wage would bring a democratic facet to the relationship between the rulers and the ruled.

This might help mitigate the continuing inter-generational unfairness of recent decades. The “Deficit Myth” has been used to make tertiary education a commodity instead of an inter-generational gift. This has harmed tertiary education, of which there is not enough range, and impoverished recent generations who have been further harmed by rising housing costs, encouraged by HMG.

Democracy is more than an electoral system which returns a government for which the majority have not voted. One of the two parliamentary houses is not voted for.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged bbc | 17 Comments