NEW: Labour will introduce citizens' assemblies to decide contentious issues, such as Lords reform and housebuilding Sue Gray has told @TomBaldwin66 of the “transformational” success of bodies in Ireland that built consensus for constitutional change politics.co.uk/news/2024/02/1…
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@Josh_Self_ @TomBaldwin66 Looking at most of the suspicious and conspiratorial responses to this post. I guess most have no idea by what a citizen's assembly means in practice.
@Josh_Self_ @TomBaldwin66 Been waiting for the Akehurst dead cat diversion Here it is. Trending for days as #TelAvivKeith is upsetting the poor dears. #TelAvivKeith 🤣🤣
@Josh_Self_ @TomBaldwin66 Starmer is infamously anti democratic and authoritarian. Blair’s devolution while centralising powers gives a good indication of Starmer’s intent. It’s not like Ireland takes the results of focus groups as gospel #TelAvivKeith
@Josh_Self_ @TomBaldwin66 Urrgh! This sounds like a terrible move. I can't think of any successful transformative policy or constitutional change that hasn't come from courageous leadership supported by broad consensus. An abdication of (visionary?) leadership with zero accountability
@Josh_Self_ @TomBaldwin66 @Annemarieward Sounds like another layer of talking shops where the voices of the most vulnerable will not be heard. Too poor to afford the bus fare to the doctor, beaten down by a violent environment controlled by local crime gangs, they will have to wait to see who notices.
@Josh_Self_ @TomBaldwin66 A citizens’ assembly could consider the best way of electing MPs to better represent the wishes of the votes. Leaving MPs with the decision about how to (re-)elect them is not right, but referendums are subject to massive manipulation. FirstPastThePost is broken. #PR
@Josh_Self_ @TomBaldwin66 The national interest is what matters, not what people think. The latter only matters insofar as it is correlated with the former. The government should simply act in the national interest and not feel the need to consult provincial hillbillies from non-London constituencies.
@Josh_Self_ @TomBaldwin66 "Citizen Assembly". This reminds me of 'workers councils' or "Soviets". "Citizens" are workers and "assemblies" are councils.
@Josh_Self_ @TomBaldwin66 In the hands of a decent, principled politician this would be an excellent project but in those of the most deceitful, venal, authoritarians in uk politics it’s a bad joke #TelAvivKeith