Paul Hilder (Lewisham, Avaaz): "This task does not fall to government alone, but to all the people of these islands – and the discussion now begins." So ends Gordon Brown's promising Green Paper. But how do we get involved? Will this be a genuine national debate (such a thing perhaps as we have never seen)? Or will we citizens be occasionally enlisted as backdrop, with the outcomes really decided by a handful in smoke-filled rooms? What counts ultimately in debate is: who is mandated to draw conclusions?
Gordon Brown told Parliament, "I have asked my Right Honourable Friend the Secretary for Justice to lead a dialogue within Parliament and with people across the United Kingdom by holding a series of hearings, starting in the autumn". Thus is the government's conductor of national debate appointed: Jack Straw, a potent and canny operator. Do we want Straw to be sole interpreter and summer-up? Can he open out the national debate? Surely not, unless there is also leadership from below.
Who will excite a popular wave of engagement to achieve this? Who will interpret its direction from the point of view of "all the people of these islands" and not from the heart of power? The media can serve, but never lead this. Nor can one or two NGOs weigh against Straw in the scales. The likeliest outcome is this: a stage-managed process of consultation about which the public never quite gets excited, and a shoal of competing civil society minnows swept aside at the close.
Here is a proposal: we need a Popular Coalition, bringing together organisations like the Power Inquiry and Unlock Democracy with civic pillars like the Women's Institute and Friends of the Earth as well as allied public figures. Albeit too briefly, Make Poverty History made the weather in 2005. It's time to try something more modest and effective for the democratic cause. Ours must be a loose and pluralistic alliance, centred on a simple demand for public engagement in this process. Given a clear focus and tangible outcome, we will see a surge of popular energy, from town-hall meetings to internet campaigns.
An umbrella of this kind is essential if large numbers of regular people are to become true partners in steering this debate and deciding the shape of our shared future. Without it, we will remain weak and fragmented. We need each other at this moment. The people care about democracy, accountability, and trust -- our organisations need to serve them, and to link our efforts better. The coalition's central demand might go something like this:
The time has come to bring power closer to the people. We cannot leave this to Government or the political elite alone. The change must go beyond consultation to true cooperation. We, the citizens, call for a great Popular Convention within the year - to open up the national debate, and propose reforms to revive our democracy. Give us a real say in how our country is run.
Whisper it - a growing hunger for genuine engagement with the people of these islands may be reaching even the most hardened of political souls. But as we stand in the doorway between Britain's imperial, centralised past and an as-yet-unknown future, it should be self-evident that we cannot leave it to government alone to lead.
