Citizens Convention

Anthony Barnett & Jon Bright (London, OK): Yesterday openDemocracy participated in the seminar on popular participation which Alexandra Runswick plugged on our pages the day before. It was serious, wide ranging and achieved its first aim of bringing international experience of popular democratic processes into a discussion with representatives from the Ministry of Justice working on the projected Citizens Summit.

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): Just in time for the collapse of New Labour in a cloud of double-dealing, the escutcheon of Charter 88 has been hammered to the wall of a new campaign for democratic reform, Unlock Democracy, as Peter Facey reports. By coincidence Robin Wilson who was a mover and shaker of Northern Ireland's Democratic Dialogue, in a very nice tribute to Stuart Weir and me, looks back across almost two decades ago to the establishment of Charter 88. He lists more achievements than I might claim,

James Graham (London, Unlock Democracy): Unlock Democracy has welcomed the fact that over 100 MPs have now signed up in support of the proposed Citizens Convention Bill.

The Bill, which Lib Dem MP Julia Goldsworthy presented to the House of Commons in June, will commit the Government to establishing a constitutional convention in order to involve people from all sections of society in improving the way the United Kingdom is governed. It is supported by MPs from across the spectrum, including Conservatives, Labour, Plaid Cymru, the DUP, the SDLP and independents.

John Jackson (London, Charter 88): Guy Aitchison may be reading something into Jack Straw's reported remarks to The Times which is not there. A Citizens' Convention of the sort being proposed by Unlock Democracy with cross party support does not exclude or walk round Parliament. Not only would it be created by Parliament but it may well be right for its conclusions to be considered by Parliament before being put to a national referendum. Underpinning representative democracy in this way could play an important role both in the popular involvement in constitutional reform that Unlock Democracy and Power are talking about and in the much needed restoration of confidence in the workings of Parliament that pervades the Green Paper. It would be surprising if Jack Straw is setting himself against that.

Guy Aitchison (London, OK): In an interview in today’s Times Jack Straw promised wide public involvement in constitutional reform but appeared to rule out the prospect of a citizens’ convention to agree the changes. His comments will frustrate campaigners who have called for just such a convention as a way of achieving the Government’s declared aims of restoring trust in politics and strengthening public engagement - not least Unlock Democracy who have drafted a Citizens’ Convention Bill sponsored by MPs from all three major parties, and the Power Inquiry whose 'make it an issue' petition made similar demands. Straw seems to prefer the use of citizens’ juries to discuss a “bill of rights and responsibilities” and a “possible written constitution”, but it is still unclear what kind of binding powers they will have, if any. Surely a citizens’ convention is the only guarantee that constitutional reform will not become yet another top-down, purely consultative exercise. As Paul Hilder puts it below, “do we want Straw to be sole interpreter and summer up?”.

Paul Hilder (Lewisham, Avaaz): "This task does not fall to government alone, but to all the people of these islands – and the discussion now begins." So ends Gordon Brown's promising Green Paper. But how do we get involved? Will this be a genuine national debate (such a thing perhaps as we have never seen)? Or will we citizens be occasionally enlisted as backdrop, with the outcomes really decided by a handful in smoke-filled rooms? What counts ultimately in debate is: who is mandated to draw conclusions?

John Jackson (London, Charter88): The right of citizens to have a direct say about what is important to them, what should be done about it and by whom is marching to an increasingly strong beat. I hear it in the impulse to support the Citizen's Convention Bill here in the United Kingdom. The sound of citizenship is also echoing across Europe in popular demand for "citizen's initiatives". Did you notice their inclusion in the proposed new Treaty, in the list of topics subject to majority voting? Combined with the notion of a legal status for the European Union as such, I suspect this could have profound consequences. Whether you welcome it or not, the idea that "citizens of Europe" are members of a European state and should be able directly to have a say in the shape and nature of that state will grow (especially as the election of MEPs is a pretty remote process). A very long way down the road? Yes. Will it happen? Yes. Meaningful citizenship of a democratic Europe, written for the moment however tentatively, is on the map.

John Jackson (London, Charter88): Is the sensitivity of Members of Parliament to the mood of those whom they represent reflected in today’s striking development spelt out in a full-page Guardian advert? Without waiting to hear what is in the mind of the new Prime Minister, three backbench MPs, one Labour, one Conservative and one Liberal Democrat, have tabled a bill to compel the creation of a Citizen's Convention to consider, and if thought right, propose changes to the constitution. Which itself establishes how our parliamentary democracy should work.

OurKingdom: Here is the Citizens’ Convention Bill, drafted by Unlock Democracy and published today. It is being sponsored by Douglas Carswell MP (Conservative), David Chaytor MP (Labour), Julia Goldsworthy MP (Lib-Dem).

Citizens Convention Bill

1. Citizens’ Convention

(1) For the purposes of

(a) modernising the way in which the United Kingdom is governed; and