Referendums ‘could improve political engagement’
The government should make it easier for people to have their say in politics via national and local referendums, a new campaign has argued.
Our Say proposes that a petition signed by one million should be enough to trigger a national referendum on any issue. At a local level, only a few thousand supporters would be needed to call for a vote, the results of which would become law.
The campaign has been launched by Saira Khan, a former contestant on TV show The Apprentice, and claims the support of Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik and the frontrunner to stand for the Conservatives as London mayor, Nicholas Boles.
It cites a recent ICM poll showing strong disillusionment with the main political parties – just 24 per cent identified with the Labour party, 17 per cent with the Tories and nine per cent with the Lib Dems – and argues that politics must change.
“Politics in Britain is broken,” said Ms Khan. “So many people are disillusioned and cynical about the way the system works. It’s no good simply tinkering.
“Politicians have to get serious about sharing power with the people. That’s what Our Say aims to do by giving every citizen a direct say over the issues that really matter to them.”
A spokeswoman for the Hansard Society welcomed today’s campaign as a contribution to the debate about how to get more people involved in the political process, but warned that referendums were not as fair as they first appeared.
“We are absolutely delighted that people are talking about ways in which people can become more engaged,” she told politics.co.uk.
But she added: “If you have constant referendums on everything, then people whose voices have the most money behind them tend to win the day.
“We would trumpet the merits of parliamentary democracy because in that, everyone is represented.[in referendums] the voices of the minority are always drowned out by the voices of those who have got the best ways of getting their point across.”
The Our Say campaign proposes that referendums be triggered by a petition signed by 2.5 per cent of the electorate – about one million people nationally, or 4,000 for a local issue.
Signatures would have to be gathered within a set period and monitored by the Electoral Commission, and referendums could only be held once a year, to coincide with local elections.
To counter concerns that those people with the most money behind them would win, the campaign also proposes strict limits on expenditure during the campaign. The Electoral Commission would be responsible for setting the question.
