Daniel Leighton (London, Power Inquiry): The Lib Dems have published their own 20 step guide to democratic renewal. What kind of timing is this? The Cabinet has already met today to hold an unique discussion on constitutional reform. The outcome of their well prepared deliberation will be presented to Parliament on Monday. It is unlikely now to be deflected by a missive from Cowley Street
At the heart of the Lib Dems approach is the call for the drawing up a written constitution, setting out individual rights and limiting the power of the state, through a constitutional convention involving not just parties, but also members of the public. If the Brown Government is thinking on similar lines, the key question may no longer be whether citizens should be involved in constitution making but how this can take place – and in a way that meets democratic criteria.
Should Brown and Straw opt for an open convention this could put us in a potentially very interesting and democratically creative space. One that won’t be defined (or constrained) by precedent or convention for the simple reason that such a move is historically unprecedented in the UK. The closest we have come is the Scottish constitutional convention (set-up in the 1980's). This laid the groundwork for the devolution settlement when it was endorsed by a then insurgent Labour party in the mid 90's. Yet this was a claim of right initiated by those outside of government, rather than by the government itself. It remains to be seen how far an incumbent Prime Minister is willing, or able, to expand the democratic imagination of his colleagues to repeat a similar process.
Moderator: We've been looking for a Lib Dem discussion of Campbell's proposals in the blogosphere, nothing on the usually reliable Lib-Dem voice, Stephen Tall (Lib Dem Blog of the year 2006) is posting only on the reshuffle, CentreForum prefers to cover the new cabinet's impact on the morning papers, and most others seem more interested in the upcoming byelections. Anyone know of any Lib-Dems talking about the constitution? Let us know through a comment or use the Contact section above.
