Sign Up: The government wants even more power. Let’s demand real democracy instead
Sam Coates, Unlock Democracy
Our outdated, hyper-centralised political system means the powerful make most of the decisions, often with few consequences when they fall foul of public opinion.
The pandemic has given us many new examples of this - when advisor to the Government Dominic Cummings flouted lockdown, ministers gave inaccurate reports to the media. The Prime Minister Boris Johnson refused to sack him despite clear polling and primal levels of public anger. Yet Cummings remains in post.
After December’s election, there were worries this would get a whole lot worse. The wording in the Conservative manifesto implied plans to weaken challenges to abuses of government power, pointed out by groups like Liberty.
From watering down the courts’ ability to challenge abuses of power, to weakening the Human Rights Act, it looked like the government was determined to water down checks on its power.
Recently, we heard rumours the planned commission tasked with all this was being shelved. Ministers were perhaps thinking twice about being seen to rig the rules of politics in their favour during a global pandemic.
It looks like the government has toned down their ambitions for a big, top-down review of our constitution. But it now plans to run a panel to look at Judicial Review - or which government decisions the courts can rule on.
Together we’ll stand up against any plans to hand even more unaccountable power to ministers. But the status quo hasn’t been working for a long time. That’s why we need to demand something better.
So in consultation with our supporters, we’ve developed five principles for a democratic future. These should guide our way out of the pandemic and give us all a real say over the decisions that shape our lives. They are:
How the UK government has handled the pandemic has only made people more distrustful of politics - from constantly missed targets to suspicious contracts with private companies. But together we can build public support for an alternative vision of democracy.
These principles for a democratic future are the start of a public conservation about that vision.