Upgrading Democracy - A Work in Progress

With the worst effects of Covid receding, for the first time in many years, Unlock Democracy has attended most of the major party conferences: Labour, Green, Conservative and SNP (if it hadn't been cancelled, we would also have been at the Lib Dem conference).

What did we learn? In spite of every high street in the land offering a cornucopia of cafés, from the quirky independent to the ubiquitous chain coffee shops, coffee at party conferences is still abominable. More predictably, the mood of the delegates swings in unison with their party’s poll ratings.  Euphoric and triumphant if they are up, doomladen and rebellious if they are down.  

More seriously, for Unlock Democracy’s agenda, an honest assessment of the priority the parties are giving to democratic reforms confirms that no party, so far at least, is placing them at the heart of its campaign for the next General Election campaign.  (An exception to this rule would be the SNP, for whom the push for independence is central to most, if not all, of their policies.) 

This lack of priority is the bad news.  

The good news is that we have supporters of change in all parties and they are willing to speak out and work with Unlock Democracy and our allies, like Make Votes Matter, Compass, ERS and Demos. 

Speakers at our fringes like Olivia Blake MP who highlights how countries with PR are at the forefront of the environmental movement, Chris Clarkson MP who points to the way Scotland benefited from PR, Tommy Sheppard MP who even though his party would lose seats under PR still supports it and Natalie Bennett whose first move after being appointed to the House of Lords was to present a Bill to abolish it.  Alliances can be forged on the introduction of Proportional Representation, House of Lords reform and genuine devolution.

But they will face daunting obstacles when seeking to build a critical mass behind these proposals.

We have only just started the task of explaining to people why democratic reforms, like a fairer voting system, are relevant to reducing poverty, improving health outcomes and getting to grips with climate change.

And we haven’t yet convincingly demonstrated to the political parties that there is real demand from the public for the changes we’re calling for - especially during a cost of living crisis.

If we can’t deal with these last two points, we will be stuck with a voting system we share with Belarus, a second chamber stuffed with party donors and an overly centralised system of government.

But if we can embrace them, we could see a new government championing a renewal of our democracy, the UK gaining a reputable status as a deliberative trendsetter where the people are regularly consulted on key decisions and a new brand of politics, less aggressive and more collegiate emerging. 

This is the progressive, modern and happy country we aspire to and we can unite behind.