Vocal Voices

Saturday morning, the World hasn't ended (yet!), and it's pretty much incumbent on us all to move forward. But how?

There's an interesting article on the BBC website by Mark Easton about the "healing process" and towards the bottom of it, there's reference to a Citizens Convention on UK Democracy involving, well, a heck of a lot of people:

Over the next two years, the Citizens' Convention on UK Democracy will attempt to engage 10 million people in what it describes as a "UK conversation". Thousands will receive a formal invitation to participate in a convention, their names selected by civic lottery. Among the issues that will be considered are the voting system, the future of the House of Lords, devolving power to local and regional bodies, how politics should be paid for and whether the UK should have a written constitution. A number of senior MPs from across the political spectrum have agreed to help ensure that the conclusions of the convention are considered by Parliament.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51281916

Would you participate if asked, and if so, what would you say?

Could get very nasty I would imagine
Like politics

Keep Calm And Carry On.

Yes to an English parliament of about 300 MPs elected under PR.
No to English regional assemblies.
Yes to a UK HoC acting like a Senate for the whole of the UK with about 100 members.
Yes to an elected HoL as an amending chamber, similar numbers to the HoC
Yes to funding the Monarch and immediate heir.
No to funding all the other Royal hangers on.
Yes to a very much slimmed down BBC
Yes to a new way of funding the BBC, possibly a mix of a cheaper licence and subscription.
Yes to doing away with all the duplication in NHS Trusts and getting rid of useless managers.
Yes to bringing back grammar schools, polytechnics and meaningful apprenticeships.

in a nutshell WM

When I first started work in the NHS, quite a few years ago, there was a hospital manager, physician superintendent, and a matron for each hospital and there was an overall group manager who coordinated expenditure etc for each of the hospitals within the group. This was how the hospitals were run before they devolved to individual Trusts. Everything then was ordered through central purchasing, obviously having been bought in bulk to save money. This system applied to all hospitals throughout the UK. There was a set budget for each hospital and more often than not, the budget was adhered to and there was a little bit over which could be used for small items like carpet replacements or the purchase of desks, etc. Looking back it seems to me the system certainly cut out overcharging by suppliers to the NHS, and if my memory serves me correctly, anything ordered in error could be sent back to central purchasing, thus reducing waste.

Workingman wrote:Yes to an English parliament of about 300 MPs elected under PR.
No to English regional assemblies.
Yes to a UK HoC acting like a Senate for the whole of the UK with about 100 members.
Yes to an elected HoL as an amending chamber, similar numbers to the HoC

I think adopting some sort of PR is an absolute must, now. The regional model involving lists as used in the EU elections would seem quite fair to me.
An English parliament, equal to the Welsh, Scottish and NI assemblies (rather than numerous English regional assemblies) would be good, but I'm not quite sure what the function of the Senate would be. What responsibilities would it have? How would you get its members - election, or by approval/appointment from the 4 individual assemblies?
Personally I'd ditch the HoL completely. Too many vested interests, too much of a gravy train, and how would us plebs know which toffs to vote for?

Workingman wrote:Yes to funding the Monarch and immediate heir.
No to funding all the other Royal hangers on.
Yes to a very much slimmed down BBC
Yes to a new way of funding the BBC, possibly a mix of a cheaper licence and subscription.
Yes to doing away with all the duplication in NHS Trusts and getting rid of useless managers.
Yes to bringing back grammar schools, polytechnics and meaningful apprenticeships.

No argument from me there!
Plus a root and branch overhaul of the welfare system in all its facets from childcare through disability and unemployment benefits to pension rights.

Workingman wrote:Yes to an English parliament of about 300 MPs elected under PR.
No to English regional assemblies.
Yes to a UK HoC acting like a Senate for the whole of the UK with about 100 members.
Yes to an elected HoL as an amending chamber, similar numbers to the HoC

Absolutely agree.
But Labour just don't get it. Why? Only the other day Keir Starmer was talking about "the nations and regions of the UK".
Right. So Wales is a nation, Scotland is a nation and England is...? A collection of regions? Nuts to that. They can talk until they are blue in the face but people are not going to accept this.
If a parliament is OK for Scotland and Wales, it's OK for England as well. But Labour seem to have a massive problem with the concept of England and I can't understand why.
Why is it that every change to the political structure of the UK results in the creation of more jobs for politicians? Like - Scottish parliament, Welsh assembly, metro mayors and the regional assemblies which they still want.
We have too many politicians as it is, the last thing we need is more of them.

That sounds like a sensible system Meds.

What we do is get to sit at the ringside and watch as the Government either lives up to the promises or rows back on them.

With an 80 seat majority, the HOL is neutered and whatever the PM wants, the PM gets.

We will have to wait until June to see how the EU reacts when the UK tell them that the UK is going to sign something by the end of 2020 or exit the transition agreement without a new agreement.

Once that is over you can expect a new round of boundary changes to be the only solid changes to happen in UK politics.

Anyone who is actually listening to Boris would know that he has no intention of changing voting or structures right now. His full focus is on making what we do have work. Only when it is found to be impossible to work, will it be changed.

As for PR?

Neither the Tories nor Labour would have gained out of PR in the last election. So I would not expect them to want to introduce it.

I expect at least 2 years of status quo. They will be far to busy to play with the structures of the UK and they have absolutely no need to do so with such a large majority.