Tag Archives: uk parliament

Britain has too much government and too little democratic power

By James Dennison | Tue 15th September 2026 - 1:30 pm

Britain has accumulated government without accumulating democratic power. A citizen trying to discover who is responsible for a major decision can now encounter ministers, councils, combined authorities, mayors, regulators, agencies, commissioners and public-private partnerships—often with overlapping responsibilities and no obvious person whom an election can remove.

This is not simply a problem of having too much government. It is a problem of power becoming difficult to see and therefore difficult to control. The liberal answer is neither centralisation nor another wave of institutional invention, but to make the state smaller where possible, stronger where necessary, and democratic wherever public power is exercised. Ten Liberal Democrat policies could begin that process.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged constitutional reform | 11 Comments

Harmony in politics

By Lord William Wallace | Tue 17th December 2024 - 4:50 pm

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if politicians from different parties sang, in harmony, from the same hymn sheet? That may seem like a Christmas thought but a workday impossibility.

Well, some of the time some of us do. 20 years ago, a Labour peer who knew how many of us were singers but found that the parliamentary timetable prevented us from being in the same church or hall at the same rehearsal time each week suggested that we form a choir within the Parliament estate. I was sceptical of the idea, but turned up in the crypt chapel just off Westminster Hall for the rehearsal, and have been singing with it ever since.

There are many good voices among the several thousand people working in and around Parliament. After all, one of the basic skills shared by singers and politicians is the confidence to stand up before an audience and project your voice. David Lammy, like me, was a boy chorister (he in Peterborough Cathedral, me at Westminster Abbey). Bernard Jenkin almost became a professional singer; his sister did become a professional, and has been a soloist with Parliament Choir concerts. Sarah Teather, who sang with the choir when a Liberal Democrat MP, was a wonderful soprano; she also sang solos for us.