The Parliamentary Vision - When in Government Series
A series of papers illustrating how UKpopdems will manage government for the benefit of Britain and the British people.
2. Implementing the Vision – we can govern for the pitfalls and problems of everyday life and deliver the promises we have made to Britain and the British people.
a). The Parliamentary Process
As UKpopdems becomes more widely known and as our vision, goals and policies for Britain and the British people gain wider understanding, it is not surprising that people in all walks of life ask the obvious question. How is it possible, they say, that any political party can promise to deliver so much that is of benefit to ordinary people – individual and community empowerment; social and financial wealth; pride in Britain’s place in the world – when established and much larger parties who have actually formed governments fail time and again to deliver anything like UKpopdems own twenty priority policy areas. Is it too good to be true?
People are right to ask this question. How can UKpopdems deliver where experienced governments have failed? The answer is not really so difficult to explain or understand. Labour and Conservative governments, over the last thirty years especially, have concentrated on just two things: firstly, doing whatever it takes to gain power in the first place, and secondly: doing whatever it takes to hold onto power once they’ve got it. Policies and the quality of legislation suffer as a result. That sounds cynical, but it can be seen clearly in the increase of spin over truth and real delivery; the rapid centralisation of authority; the declining quality of legislation; the increasing politicisation of the Civil Service and public bodies; the slowly increasing restrictions on individual freedom and interference in our everyday lives and the steady decline in truly democratic decision making. It’s no wonder ordinary Britons in their millions are decoupling from the political process because not only do they feel all parties are the same and but also that they can exercise no individual democratic influence over them. But, amazingly, this public disconnect is taken by politicians as signalling that they have got things right otherwise, they say, ordinary people would be more active in voicing their opinions. It’s a tightening vicious circle.
UKpopdems is very different as a party. We believe the balance of democratic power should be shifted towards the individual and their communities and away from bureaucratic and centralising government. So with UKpopdems, the needs of Britain and the British people come first and we’ve listened hard to what those needs really are. As proof of this we are laying out before the people the result of that listening in the form of detailed policies that we intend to deliver in government. Not fuzzy blandishments, but actual detail. Because UKpopdems has this detail, when we’re elected we’ll be able to hit the ground running in delivering benefits. Departmental heads, Local Authorities and delivery agencies will have been very much aware of what UKpopdems stands for well before any election, so we’ll expect any implementation that can be done without legislation to move forward quickly and with full backing.
This is just the start. In a system as complex as Britain’s we cannot expect policy to be implemented smoothly and without problems just by ticking a box. Our watch-words in government are ‘simplify’ and ‘empower’: Firstly, simplifying the process to enable direct engagement with delivery agents responsible for implementing change, and secondly, empowering communities to take democratic decisions and authority when they feel ready. Internally, in Whitehall, we’ll break down the huge bureaucratic, monolithic, serial departments so individuals work simply in small empowered teams to achieve broad implementation objectives in many parallel areas. As we move more resources to the font-line where they’ll work directly in the communities they serve, then MPs and departmental teams will work face to face with delivery organisations and communities to ensure systems and expertise are in-place and everyone is comfortable with increasing local democratic powers and accountability.
On a day to day level, the cabinet will be separated, with two ministers appointed to each cabinet post. One of these ministers will be responsible for successful change management to ensure new policies take effect with the promised benefits; the second minister will be responsible for current operations to make sure established systems continue to work well and events are addressed properly as they arise. Both of these positions are essential to avoid potentially serious events being mishandled on the one hand and policy implementation being blown off-course on the other. To prevent even the possibility of spin by a UKpopdem government, senior public servants will be given clear responsibility for announcing factual information in both summary form and back-up detail. These facts will take precedence over any statements and interpretations made by cabinet ministers. The point of this is to make sure everyone; Parliament, the public, civil service, delivery organisations, the Head of State and international bodies have the same agreed factual position. Cabinet ministers’ role then is to address these facts, rather than dispute them, and apply themselves to future action.
Today, instead of getting on with the business of governing for the benefit of the people, parties ‘in power’ spend much of their time manoeuvring to gain advantage for themselves and their backers. This not only damages our democracy but also provides too much opportunity for MPs and ministers to avoid addressing major issues, which then often turn into crises. One of the first things UKpopdems will do in government is to stop any chance of damaging manipulation being possible. A tough, independent regulator will be appointed to monitor MPs behaviour and protect public interest. In addition, Ministers will lose the right to initiate enquiries which are often used to avoid public discussion of contentious issues. All enquiries will be initiated, and terms of reference defined, by a new independent body. Under a major constitutional change that UKpopdems will work to implement, the House of Commons will also lose the right under the Parliament Act to push legislation through the Lords and onto the statute book. In future, if The Lords reject a bill twice then precedence will no longer revert to Parliament but to the people themselves who will have an opportunity for the final say in a referendum, the result of which will be binding on both Houses.
Of course, none of the above regulations and restrictions should be necessary in a free democracy such as ours. But Labour and Conservative have each contributed to the damage suffered to our Parliamentary system by introducing greed, sleaze and spin and by centralising power into fewer and fewer unaccountable hands. They have steadily increased government’s ability to manipulate situations to their own advantage and negatively impact the lives of ordinary people. MPs have mistakenly allowed themselves to believe they are better than the people they are meant to be serving. The value of Parliament is to protect and grow the peace of mind, wealth and freedom of the people, not to restrict and damage these values. Ukpopdems is a party of the people and in government we will be the servants of the people. And as servants we not only need to properly manage government for the benefit of the people, but we have to be seen to do so, clearly and unequivocally.
Implementing the vision papers to follow:
Implementing UKpopdems Democratic vision
Implementing UKpopdems Community vision
Implementing UKpopdems Economic vision
Implementing UKpopdems International vision
2. Implementing the Vision – we can govern for the pitfalls and problems of everyday life and deliver the promises we have made to Britain and the British people.
a). The Parliamentary Process
As UKpopdems becomes more widely known and as our vision, goals and policies for Britain and the British people gain wider understanding, it is not surprising that people in all walks of life ask the obvious question. How is it possible, they say, that any political party can promise to deliver so much that is of benefit to ordinary people – individual and community empowerment; social and financial wealth; pride in Britain’s place in the world – when established and much larger parties who have actually formed governments fail time and again to deliver anything like UKpopdems own twenty priority policy areas. Is it too good to be true?
People are right to ask this question. How can UKpopdems deliver where experienced governments have failed? The answer is not really so difficult to explain or understand. Labour and Conservative governments, over the last thirty years especially, have concentrated on just two things: firstly, doing whatever it takes to gain power in the first place, and secondly: doing whatever it takes to hold onto power once they’ve got it. Policies and the quality of legislation suffer as a result. That sounds cynical, but it can be seen clearly in the increase of spin over truth and real delivery; the rapid centralisation of authority; the declining quality of legislation; the increasing politicisation of the Civil Service and public bodies; the slowly increasing restrictions on individual freedom and interference in our everyday lives and the steady decline in truly democratic decision making. It’s no wonder ordinary Britons in their millions are decoupling from the political process because not only do they feel all parties are the same and but also that they can exercise no individual democratic influence over them. But, amazingly, this public disconnect is taken by politicians as signalling that they have got things right otherwise, they say, ordinary people would be more active in voicing their opinions. It’s a tightening vicious circle.
UKpopdems is very different as a party. We believe the balance of democratic power should be shifted towards the individual and their communities and away from bureaucratic and centralising government. So with UKpopdems, the needs of Britain and the British people come first and we’ve listened hard to what those needs really are. As proof of this we are laying out before the people the result of that listening in the form of detailed policies that we intend to deliver in government. Not fuzzy blandishments, but actual detail. Because UKpopdems has this detail, when we’re elected we’ll be able to hit the ground running in delivering benefits. Departmental heads, Local Authorities and delivery agencies will have been very much aware of what UKpopdems stands for well before any election, so we’ll expect any implementation that can be done without legislation to move forward quickly and with full backing.
This is just the start. In a system as complex as Britain’s we cannot expect policy to be implemented smoothly and without problems just by ticking a box. Our watch-words in government are ‘simplify’ and ‘empower’: Firstly, simplifying the process to enable direct engagement with delivery agents responsible for implementing change, and secondly, empowering communities to take democratic decisions and authority when they feel ready. Internally, in Whitehall, we’ll break down the huge bureaucratic, monolithic, serial departments so individuals work simply in small empowered teams to achieve broad implementation objectives in many parallel areas. As we move more resources to the font-line where they’ll work directly in the communities they serve, then MPs and departmental teams will work face to face with delivery organisations and communities to ensure systems and expertise are in-place and everyone is comfortable with increasing local democratic powers and accountability.
On a day to day level, the cabinet will be separated, with two ministers appointed to each cabinet post. One of these ministers will be responsible for successful change management to ensure new policies take effect with the promised benefits; the second minister will be responsible for current operations to make sure established systems continue to work well and events are addressed properly as they arise. Both of these positions are essential to avoid potentially serious events being mishandled on the one hand and policy implementation being blown off-course on the other. To prevent even the possibility of spin by a UKpopdem government, senior public servants will be given clear responsibility for announcing factual information in both summary form and back-up detail. These facts will take precedence over any statements and interpretations made by cabinet ministers. The point of this is to make sure everyone; Parliament, the public, civil service, delivery organisations, the Head of State and international bodies have the same agreed factual position. Cabinet ministers’ role then is to address these facts, rather than dispute them, and apply themselves to future action.
Today, instead of getting on with the business of governing for the benefit of the people, parties ‘in power’ spend much of their time manoeuvring to gain advantage for themselves and their backers. This not only damages our democracy but also provides too much opportunity for MPs and ministers to avoid addressing major issues, which then often turn into crises. One of the first things UKpopdems will do in government is to stop any chance of damaging manipulation being possible. A tough, independent regulator will be appointed to monitor MPs behaviour and protect public interest. In addition, Ministers will lose the right to initiate enquiries which are often used to avoid public discussion of contentious issues. All enquiries will be initiated, and terms of reference defined, by a new independent body. Under a major constitutional change that UKpopdems will work to implement, the House of Commons will also lose the right under the Parliament Act to push legislation through the Lords and onto the statute book. In future, if The Lords reject a bill twice then precedence will no longer revert to Parliament but to the people themselves who will have an opportunity for the final say in a referendum, the result of which will be binding on both Houses.
Of course, none of the above regulations and restrictions should be necessary in a free democracy such as ours. But Labour and Conservative have each contributed to the damage suffered to our Parliamentary system by introducing greed, sleaze and spin and by centralising power into fewer and fewer unaccountable hands. They have steadily increased government’s ability to manipulate situations to their own advantage and negatively impact the lives of ordinary people. MPs have mistakenly allowed themselves to believe they are better than the people they are meant to be serving. The value of Parliament is to protect and grow the peace of mind, wealth and freedom of the people, not to restrict and damage these values. Ukpopdems is a party of the people and in government we will be the servants of the people. And as servants we not only need to properly manage government for the benefit of the people, but we have to be seen to do so, clearly and unequivocally.
Implementing the vision papers to follow:
Implementing UKpopdems Democratic vision
Implementing UKpopdems Community vision
Implementing UKpopdems Economic vision
Implementing UKpopdems International vision
posted by United Kingdom Popular Democratic Party at 5:33 pm
