[GJM] Tory plan for people power

[robert searle]

--- IR+R NEWS <newsletter at iniref.org> wrote:

> I&R – GB replies to Conservative Party Leader in The
> Sunday Times
>
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3434222.ece
>
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> 
> HAVE YOUR SAY
> With the proposal as stated here, Cameron risks (or
> intends) installing 
> a system which will turn out to be a sham of
> democracy and will serve to 
> further increase alienation of the people from their
> politicians. If 
> parliament may fiddle about with a citizens'
> proposal, then we may 
> expect -- fiddling!
> 
> Research and many comments of citizens in Britain
> have shown that a very 
> large majority of us want a democracy which enables
> us, in addition to 
> electing and throwing out politicians, to co-decide
> on some public 
> issues. The "agenda setting" rights (petitions)
> which the Tories now 
> seem to suggest do not go far enough. The critical
> point is, if a 
> citizens' proposal ("initiative" in the USA,
> Switzerland and elsewhere) 
> gains huge support (say, three million endorsements)
> then, if government 
> and parliament reject the proposal, it *must* be put
> to the whole 
> electorate in a plebiscite (which may be called a
> binding referendum).
> 
> Michael Macpherson, Guildford, Surrey
> 
> 
>  From The Sunday Times
> March 2, 2008
> Tory plan for people power
> Jonathan Oliver, Political Editor
> VOTERS would be able to force parliamentary debates
> or table bills via 
> petitions, under new Conservative plans to clean up
> politics.
> 
> Warning that Britain was suffering “political
> breakdown”, David Cameron 
> pledged to offer the public new ways of influencing
> Westminster.
> 
> Borrowing from the American idea of “direct
> democracy”, the Tory leader 
> said he wanted to “force politicians to respond to
> the public”.
> 
> In his speech to the Welsh Conservative conference
> in Llandudno, he 
> said: “At a national level, if a petition is
> submitted to parliament 
> signed by a set number of voters, for example
> 100,000, there would be a 
> formal debate.”
> 
> “We propose that the public, if backed by a petition
> of 1m electors, 
> should also be able to table a bill for parliament
> to vote for, to vote 
> against or to amend.”
> 
> Cameron said he wanted people to trigger more
> referendums in their own 
> communities.
> 
> Under his plans, a petition signed by 10% of the
> local electorate would 
> lead to a referendum, held on the day of the next
> council election.
> 
> “They have local initiatives in Portland, Oregon,
> and the system is 
> regarded as a great success,” he said.
> =================================
> I&R ~ GB Citizens' Initiative and Referendum
> Campaign for direct democracy in Britain
> http://www.iniref.org/
> 
> 



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