Tories ThinkLocal

Guy Aitchison (London, OK): The Daily Telegraph is hosting a debate over how to fix what is wrong with the country on the basis of the 'localist' idea that power should be returned to the people. They are calling the debate ThinkLocal and have been serialising six papers by Direct Democracy, in association with the Centre for Policy Studies so as to stir up debate. The first paper Open Politics (reported on here in OK) examined the problems facing British democracy and proposed solutions. There have since been three more papers covering education, the environment and, most recently, policing. Starting from the premise that "decisions should be taken as closely as possible to the people they affect" and that "local authorities should be self-financing" the papers make a number of interesting, often radical, proposals. Most important are: allowing parents to demand from their local authority the sum they would have spent on their child's education; a 'localist', rather than government-led, approach to the environment involving a broad extension of property rights; and elected police authorities with the power to set local sentencing guidelines as well as police priorities and budgets. Readers are invited to contribute to the debate online.