David Smith (Weymouth, Saving Democracy): I was involved with Charter 88 from 1992. Although we did our best to engage the general public, we only managed to get a very small minority on board. It was inevitable, therefore, that Charter 88 relied to a considerable extent on lobbying an apparently receptive Labour Party. Labour have since made a number of changes, and have apparently improved the situation in Scotland. But England has not benefited much, and none of Labour's reforms have addressed the fundamental issue of executive dominance of parliament. In fact things have moved in the other direction, in the face of the "War on Terror."
One question that I feel Charter 88 never really asked - and neither did the Power Inquiry - was, "OK so we are not very democratic, but how does this impact on how well we are governed? And how well are we governed?" My answers are (in reverse order), "very badly", and "It has a huge impact." Because government dominates parliament, it is accountable to no one - and this makes for poor governance.
My goal then is to enable parliament assert its theoretical control over government. Reforms, advocated by Charter 88 and others, such as a proportional voting system for the House of Commons, would help in this. The problem is that what Prof. Dawn Oliver calls the "two main tribes in Westminster", and Peter Oborne calls the "Political Class", are not about to meddle with a system that has suited them very well. We need to accept that lobbying alone will never be enough.
I am suggesting, therefore, that a new party is needed - and that if we use the issue of competence, rather than purely focussing on issues of democracy, we should be able to attract many more people than Charter 88 and its successors have been able to. We should be able to get MPs elected, who would undertake not to accept any post in government, and would focus primarily on holding government to account. I take as a hopeful sign the election in 2001, and his re-election in 2005, of Dr Richard Taylor (Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern), as MP for Wyre Forest.
As I have argued before on OurKingdom, the case for democratic reform must be reframed if it is to attract widespread public interest. This could be the way to do it. For more details, or to become part of the movement, please visit my website: savingdemocracy.aic.co.uk
