New eras of politics and democracy in the United Kingdom have opened up this year, with Gordon Brown's assumption of the premiership and elections in Scotland and Wales. Democratic Audit is continually monitoring and researching trends and changes in British politics and it is our intention to keep abreast of the new challenges, positive and negative.
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1. The case for social and economic rights
We also throw down challenges of our own. Democratic Audit has just published a major study of the case for introducing enforceable economic, social and cultural rights in the UK, Unequal Britain: human rights as a route to social justice, which is written and edited by Stuart Weir.
Mary Robinson, former UN Commissioner for Human Rights, has described this book as “PATH-BREAKING”.
Our argument is that the retreat from the welfare state makes essential a new form of protection for the well-being of all citizens in our increasingly divided and unequal society. In the book, published by Politico's, Stuart Weir and his collaborators propose a new Bill of Rights guaranteeing economic, social and cultural rights for everyone.
Unequal Britain contains: Analysis of current social and economic policies in Britain and the existing UK and EU framework for providing them. Detailed description of how social and economic rights are protected and can be enforced under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Analysis of the hostility of the political and legal establishment. A review of the arguments for and against introducing them in the UK and how they could work here (as they do in South Africa). A thorough review of the state of economic and social rights in housing, education, work and health in the UK and such protections against poverty and discrimination as exist.
 Click here to read more >>
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2. Democratic Audits of the UK
Democratic Audit has published three major audits of democracy and freedom in the UK and a wide variety of reports on elections, quangos and task forces, House of Lords reform, etc, and reviews of public opinion on democratic issues. The latest major audit was Democracy under Blair, described by the late Anthony Sampson as a 'fair and thorough "democratic audit" of the first New Labour government'.
Click here to read more >> |
3. Parliamentary Oversight of External Policies
Foreign policy has a huge impact on our daily lives. If nothing else, the invasion and occupation of Iraq has made that plain. But foreign affairs affect everything from food prices to terrorism, from equal pay to more unpredictable weather, from global migration to international crime and the drug trade, from the dangers from weapons of mass destruction to liability to HIV/AIDS and global pandemics.
People have strong views about Britain's role abroad and want to play a part in decisions about going to war, or selling arms, or giving aid, or making trade fairer (see the results of our opinion poll, >>). But we are mere spectators with no say in the decisions taken in our name by the Prime Minister, by other ministers and even by unknown officials. Even MPs, our elected representatives, have little or no say in these decisions.
The 'royal prerogative', a pre-democratic relic of monarchical rule, gives the Prime Minister, ministers and officials the power to make 'foreign policy' and go to war without ever being required to seek parliamentary or popular approval.
We published a full analysis of the weaknesses in democratic control over foreign policy jointly with the Federal Trust and One World Trust in Not in Our Name: Democracy and Foreign Policy in the UK, Politico's, 2006, and are being funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust to continue our researches.
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4. Voices of the People: popular attitudes towards Britain's democracy
The latest major opinion poll on democracy in the UK in 2006 in the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust's 'State of the Nation' series has found that most people – 56 per cent – believe that we should not reduce traditional liberties as a response to terrorism while 35 per cent believe that they should be reduced to 'protect the public'. An overwhelming majority – up to 94 per cent – believe that Britain should stick to the principle that people are innocent until proved guilty and nearly three quarters of people say that suspects in custody should be charged with an offence in 'as short a time as possible' or released. When asked how long terrorist suspects could be held without charge, 36 per cent said for up to 28 days (the present limit) or for lesser periods; 15 per cent said for up to 60 days; and 39 per cent for up to 90 days (the period for which the government and police argued in 2006).
Democratic Audit has been cooperating with the Reform Trust in producing the series of polls that goes back to 1991. The series therefore gives a continuing picture of popular attitudes to democracy and freedom in the UK on issues such as elections and electoral reform, the role of Parliament and MP's, power, House of Lords reform, sleaze, party political funding, etc. The booklet, Voices of the People (Politico's, 2005), gives a full description of the polls from 1992 onwards.
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