Swing the election campaign round to citizen-led democracy

[Michael Macpherson]

I&R ~ GB Citizens' Initiative and Referendum
Campaign for direct democracy in Britain
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**
BACKGROUND
A general election for Britain and Northern Ireland will almost 
certainly take place in 2010. The three large political parties are NOT 
clearly committed to introduce elements of genuine citizen-led 
democracy. The conservatives have talked of "election primaries" and 
petitions to Parliament. Gordon Brown praises "citizens' juries", an 
apology for effective democratic innovation. The LibDems at their 
conference rejected a proposal for genuine  direct democracy.

To achieve STATE OF THE ART democracy we must introduce PARTIAL DIRECT 
DEMOCRACY. The three main elements which we at I&R ~ GB propose are:

1) The Initiative. A proposal which has been endorsed by an agreed 
(large) number of voters must within reasonable time be debated in 
Parliament. If Parliament rejects or fails to address the proposal then 
a plebiscite ("referendum") must be held.

2) The Veto Referendum. A law or ruling made by Parliament or government 
must be put to referendum if a large number of voters demand this.

Once we have "1)" we can push through further reforms such as

3) The Recall. Members of parliament may be dismissed in the period 
between elections. An agreed large number of electors from the MP's 
constituency may demand that a ballot be held to decide whether the MP 
should be dismissed. A dismissed MP would be disqualified from a 
resulting by-election.

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*UK DIRECT DEMOCRACY ELECTION-CAMPAIGN*
As campaigners for and supporters of "citizens' initiative and 
referendum" we must begin to put pressure on candidates, sitting MPs and 
parties in their headquarters. Please help, and play your part -- see 
the following:

*WHAT YOU CAN DO*
The I&R ~ GB (direct democracy) election strategy is ready.

Please read the pages "Frame one", "Frame two" and the short "Statement 
on UK democracy ...."

If you agree with the plan-of-action then why not join in? It will not 
take much time, there are no extra costs and if enough people join in we 
will make a big impact.

Here are the documents with urls (hyperlinks):

*START <http://www.iniref.org/carta.htm>*

*OPEN ELECTION-CAMPAIGN STRATEGY <http://www.iniref.org/tactic.html>
FRAME ONE <http://www.iniref.org/tactic.html>
Setting the scene <http://www.iniref.org/tactic.html>


OPEN ELECTION-CAMPAIGN STRATEGY <http://www.iniref.org/tactic2.html>
FRAME TWO <http://www.iniref.org/tactic2.html>
The election-campaign plan-of-action <http://www.iniref.org/tactic2.html>


INDEX PAGE AND PROMISE <http://www.iniref.org/carta.htm>
STATEMENT ON UK DEMOCRACY BY MEMBERS AND PROSPECTIVE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

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*Contact:
I&R ~ GB
info AT iniref.org <mailto:info at iniref.org>

/We would like to have your feed-back.
Send us your comments and suggestions for improvement.
How can we help the direct democracy campaign to succeed?/




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