Today I’m proud to put my name to calls on the Labour government to introduce a citizens convention before the end of the current Parliament. After all of the talk about constitutional reform that’s been happening throughout all of the parties, and across the media, it’s time to take action. And whilst we’re the party of government, it comes to us to take that action. It’s in our prerogative as progressives to reform the constitutional set-up of our nation, and it’s a crying shame that we haven’t done more since 1997. Well a crisis is an awful thing to waste, as goes the adage, and we’re certainly in the midst of a crisis. If there was one thing we should do in the dying days of this Parliament, it should be to take this opportunity by the neck, create a lasting legacy of sweeping change in the way we’re governed, and assign our decayed, ad-hoc system to the history books (where I’m sure it will be much appreciated and awed at for years!).

Myself and 45 others have joined Progress, Labour’s progressive think-tank, in calling for the current Labour Government, today, to take action and introduce a Citizens’ Charter.

Add your name to the growing chorus: http://www.progressonline.org.uk/Magazine/article.asp?a=4261.

Clement Attlee, Britain’s Prime Minister between 1945-51 is a vaunted figure inside the Labour Party. Political scholars have a great deal of respect for him too. He is seen as a successful leader of a strong Cabinet, and is considered to have ruled through the strength of his team rather than as a “president”.

I found this short poem written by him while reading a book on the history of the premiership. I think it’s great:

Few thought he was even a starter
There were many who thought themselves smarter
But he ended PM
CH and OM
An earl and a knight of the garter

A slap in the face of the many naysayers who thought he wouldn’t make a good leader.

I personally find this inspiring, and if you’ve ever found yourself held back by ignorance of others, remember this.

The Swiss system of government is, in my opinion, one of the best in the world. Firstly, they have the closest thing to direct democracy that there is. If the government wants to pass a law, the people have 100 days to find 50,000 signatures on a petition if they want the new law not to be enacted. If they find the 50,000 signatures, a referendum is forced and the result is decisive and binding over that particular law. The executive branch is also very interesting. Basically there’s a federal council of government, which is made up of 7 people selected by the federal legislature (which would be parliament in our case). This is a multi-party body of equals, and each year the presidency of the body (which in effect is Switzerland’s head of state) moves on to another member. So Switzerland has a new president each year, but that president will be from a set group of 7 “councillors”.

Although imperfect, we already have a form of government in the UK which is similar. Our cabinet system is based on the old Privy Council – the council of the Monarch’s advisers. Cabinet government means collective responsibility for the decisions taken, although the collectiveness has waxed and waned with various prime ministers over the decades. What if we implemented a system like the Swiss, where we make Cabinet a permanently multi-party group of people selected by Parliament, where each member gets a six year term or something like that, and the head rotates? This would knock politicians’ heads together and mean that the work they do is on behalf of the nation rather than with an eye on getting another term as prime minister. We would stagger the elections also so that the body is refreshed over time rather than en masse. So every three years, half of the body would come up for re-election. This would mean that the body would have a certain level of continuity regardless of who is on it, and it’s institutional memory would be fresh.

We would never other measures, like plebiscites and binding petitions and referenda to go with this, as in effect “the people” would become the opposition. Also, any wholesale reform would need with it a huge programme of civic education for young and old, so the population fully understands what the new system means, and how they can be guarded against certain agendas (I’m thinking the media for one).

This is really blue-sky thinking, I know that. It would probably never happen, and who knows what the consequences would be. Besides, we don’t half love our status-quo in this country! But it’s an interesting thought none the less.

Have a look here for more information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Switzerland