“We should set up a Constitutional Convention now with or without Government” says Graham Allen after introducing a Bill in the Commons. Senior MPs of all parties are beginning the campaign for a Constitutional Convention.
“Government has an incoherent rag bag of reactive stop gap measures on our democratic future which are endangering the Union.It is not taking people or Parliament with it. We need to respond with a democratic alternative-a Constitutional Convention open to all. We need to go back to the drawing board, hold a through, citizen-led discussion and take ownership of our democracy. Only then can we build a healthy, united democracy” said Graham Allen MP
Image courtesy of Alessandro Lucia/Wikimedia Commons
A number of senior cross-party MPs, led by Graham Allen, are supporting a Bill http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/lbill/2015-2016/0010/16010.pdf which has already been presented in the Lords and calls for a Constitutional Convention for the UK.
Supporting signatories so far include David Davis, Tim Farron, Zac Goldsmith, Caroline Lucas, Jeremy Corbyn, Jon Cruddas, Mark Durkan, Jeremy Lefroy and Alistair Carmichael.
Graham presented the Bill in the House of Commons yesterday.
The Bill is identical to the one presented by Lord Purvis of Tweed in the House of Lords on Friday.
Graham said: “There is no denying there is currently a crisis in our democracy. Changes are being made to how we are governed behind closed doors and there remains too many unanswered questions about the future of the Union, how our democracy works, English devolution, EVEL and the Human Rights Act.
The Bill has broad cross party and external support. Our democracy is not the private property of Government. It is up to the millions of people in the UK who should ultimately decide where power lies and a convention will allow everyone to have their say on how they should be governed”.
This relates closely to the work of the Crick Centre and in particular their ESRC funded project to run two citizen’s assemblies on the future of British democracy. Assembly North based in Sheffield and Assembly South based in Southampton will bring together a cross section of society to put the public at the heart of the debate surrounding British democracy.