Anthony Barnett > Peter Oborne > Melissa Lane > Stuart White > John Jackson> Suzanne Moore > David Marquand > Andreas Whittam-Smith
In his column in today's Indy Andreas Whittam Smith, co-founder of the paper, joins in the debate on the way forward on democratic reform post-expenses launched by Anthony Barnett in his recent post. Whittam-Smith sees much of merit in each of the seven strategies listed by Anthony and adds an eighth of his own:
Faced with such a choice of dishes, I would prefer to take something from most of them. I would cheerfully join a campaign to take back our Parliament. It has been at the centre of the nation's life for 600 to 700 years and it is only through Parliament that legitimate change can be achieved, so that is where I would start. British government can be reformed only from the inside, not the outside.
To do this, I would take up the suggestion that a network of independent candidates committed to implementing a reform agenda should be created. Their aim would have to be the incredibly ambitious one of forming the next government. I hope that such a force, if it could be formed, would commit itself to cleaning up our system of government within the life of a single Parliament and then withdraw. It wouldn't be possible to keep the traditional parties at bay for much longer than that.
I would also borrow from MoveOn its mastery of the internet for political purposes. And to establish what such a reform programme should comprise, I would go with the "Real Change" proposal and have the 1,000 meetings around the country. In his pamphlet, Lenin called for the formation of a new party. That, too, is what a lot of people are thinking about, though in my mind it would be strictly temporary - its task would be to make our political system fit for the 21st century. Job done, its representatives would return to ordinary life.
Read the full article here.
