The latest Campaign for Democracy

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): Out of Powys comes The Campaign for Democracy with the amazingly simple strategy set out in a full page advert in today's Guardian. This is to persuade 15,000 floating voters in key marginals, who, it points out, decide all elections, to stay at home until one party or another agrees to introduce Swiss style democracy. Whereupon they all vote for that party and it gets a huge majority! Excuse me for being simple minded, but if the 15,000 are so persuaded but the parties are not, then when they stay home won’t another 15,000 people become the deciding voters? The voting system we have is deeply undemocratic. Can its lack of democracy be used to introduce democracy? Who are the “ordinary people” whose initiative launched the campaign? Could they contact OurKingdom. Their website has a detailed analysis and strategy but as for meeting them, all it offers is an event last June in the Pump Room Gardens at the Leamington Peace Festival with what is certainly a fairly democratic choice of music: Dance, folk, rock, indie, world and punk.