Recent Events - All Comments

re: Constitutional Change: Who Gains? Who Loses?

community — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:50:55 GMT

The topics of civil society, localism and the third sector have not been picked up on sufficiently to date.

o How local can we go?

o Is it possible to locate and place civil society and community associations within a new constitutional settlement?

o How can we articulate civil society as a collective attribute of community association rather than as isolated consumer citizens?

o How can we conceptualise civil society as a realm that is distinct and independent of state and market?

o In terms of the New Labour modernising agenda how do we devolve to the level below the town hall?

o In terms of third sector modernisation, how do we ensure all the focus doesn’t just go to the few newly arrived voluntary corporate bodies but actually reaches the smaller informal majority who heroically work in their neighbourhoods without remuneration?

As Director of the Community Sector Coalition, an umbrella network of 25 national Third Sector bodies, with a wider membership of some 70,000 organisations and someone doing a PhD at Goldsmiths College on the role of community development on the local government modernisation agenda, with special reference to the democratic deficit, I am keen to take this details of this debate forward so here’s to further opportunities to discuss, plan and act.

Matthew Scott

re: Constitutional Change: Who Gains? Who Loses?

jmnbbg — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:14:06 GMT

In two hours of discussion and debate about Constitutional Reform (obviously, of the British Constitution) not a single mention was made of the Lisbon Treaty, the EU Constitution.

In discussion after the event, Sir George Young was kind enough to finally admit that our Constitution had, in fact, been "amended" by the Lisbon Treaty.

I beg to differ. In fact, it has not been "amended", it has been repealed in entirety, for no nation can serve two constitutions.

The British people are now vassals to a foreign Imperial power for the first time since the Roman Empire, the legal system of which, Corpus Juris Civilis, is at the heart of the EU Constitution.

How long before the foreign troops arrive to complete the conquest that our own treacherous politicians have just signed into law?

re: Constitutional Change: Who Gains? Who Loses?

morgoth2005 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:58:24 GMT

It is interesting to consider the possible effects of Proportional Representation in the UK Parliament, by comparing it with other countries where such a system has already been enacted.

Unfortunately it is impossible to compare with most countries or with the devolved governments since their systems of government are so drastically different from a parliamentary system.

The only possible example of a country with parliamentary government, an unwritten constitution and proportional representation is Israel, where the political system sways from crisis and there is no stable strong unified government. Israel can be lauded for many things but not for its politics.

Can we really implement a PR system into a parliamentary system such as ours?

re: Constitutional Change: Who Gains? Who Loses?

Francoise Boucek — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:47:07 GMT

It seems to me that a key aspect of constitutional change in Britain involves rethinking the role of political parties - at least if one of the objectives for change is to try and reconnect citizens with politics and thus with politicians. But as long as the shackles of party discipline remain strongly in place and that the structure of incentives for British MPs (eg. career advancement) is dependent on loyalty to the party leader unchanged what hope is there for elected representative to ever get seriously involved in policymaking and engage in deliberation? Panelists were pretty silent about political parties yesterday.

re: Twitter: Communication tool or pointless vanity?

Katie — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:26:55 GMT

This was a fantastic event. Very entertaining.

re: Young people raise interesting views on politics

Adam Wilkinson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:21:07 GMT

This was a very lively democracy forum and it was great to hear the views of so many audience members, particularly a large proportion were young people.

re: What lessons should Westminster learn from Holyrood?

admin — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:22:14 GMT

TEST

Audit of Political Engagement 6

Publications — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:51:18 GMT

The annual Audit of Political Engagement carried out by the Hansard Society measures the nature and extent of political engagement and reveals where views have changed - and where they remain constant. It offers a yearly snapshot of political knowledge

Launch of the Audit of Political Engagement 6 - Recent Events

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The Hansard Society hosts many great events with a diverse range of excellent speakers. For example, the 2008 annual PSA/Hansard Society lecture given by the Rt Hon Clare Short MP. The debates are always interesting, vigorous and often with controversial

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Hansard Society eNewsletter - November 2008

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All the latest news from the Hansard Society with information about new publications, upcoming events and online projects.

House of Commons Transport Committee meets the Regions | hilpers

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Hazel Blears Blames Politicians, Media and Bloggers for Democratic Deficit. « Markoxley’s Blog

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:24:20 GMT

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