Time for Tony to give power back to the people

THERE is nothing like a dame! The refrain from South Pacific runs through Power to the People, the report of the Power Commission, paid for by the independent Joseph Rowntree Trust and chaired by Dame Helena Kennedy of The Shaws QC - just as independent.

If it was within my power, I'd have copies circulated to every school in the country with the recommendation that, after teachers had read it, they downloaded sections for their pupils.

The report provides a realistic description of the sickly state of the UK's democratic processes and a raft of prescriptions to make them better.

We're in debt to the Rowntree Trust, Helena Kennedy and the members of her Commission for having burst the bubbles of the political types who've assured each other that apathy was responsible for the dramatic fall in the number of people voting in elections. Some really dopey New Labour politicians even claim that voters give the ballot box a body-swerve because of their deep contentment with the reign of good king Tony.

Power to the People - a name which evokes fond memories of 1970s sitcom revolutionary Citizen Smith - disposes of that wishful thinking. The report finds that people don't vote because they believe politicians don't respect their opinions. The Commission concluded that the primary reason for the public's loss of trust in our democracy is the belief that voters can achieve nothing with their votes.

The report also finds that, far from being contented with the fusing of the policies and priorities of formerly opposed political parties looking remarkably like each other in the centre of the UK's political arena, electors would prefer to be offered different options, and have the power to compel politicians to seriously consider the people's choice.

Take a local example. Council tenants were asked to choose, in a referendum, to remain as council tenants, or transfer to a housing association. The people made their choice, after which some councillors immediately began preparing for another test of opinion. This time, the word came from the Council Chambers, there would be no slip-up - the council's wish would prevail. And that's as good an explanation as you'll get for people losing confidence in the power of their individual vote - why bother voting when your wishes will be over-ruled? But the Commission also finds central government has taken too much power from local government: in Edinburgh, Westminster leaned on the council to ensure that tenants voted for transfer to a housing association by saying that the city's housing debt would be written off, but only if the stock was transferred out of council ownership.

The report recommends powers should be returned to local councils. Hear, hear. And a very loud hear, hear to the report's bald and bold assertion that the cabals of cronies centred on Nos 10 and 11 Downing Street have usurped the powers of the Cabinet and the Westminster Parliament itself. If Parliament doesn't even have to endorse the decision to commit troops to a war, what's its point?

But the report doesn't just analyse, contradict and condemn politicians' opinions on the reasons why fewer than half of the first-time voters actually voted, and believed there was no responsibility placed on voters in a democracy.

Power to the People is as good as the words on its 300-odd pages. It floats ideas and positive suggestions and hits on the head something I've disagreed with ever since the spin doctors who do what passes as Tony Blair's thinking provided him with the notion of taking polling to the people by installing voting places in supermarkets.

That was a cheap shot at substituting accessibility of ballot boxes for accountability for policies and transparency of decision-making. I see supermarket voting booths as coming a long way behind the need for people to exercise real power.

I made speeches about 30 years ago on the citizens' referenda recommended by the Commission. The idea of a citizens' initiative referendum isn't new, or unique, but if groups can rustle up one per cent of their electorate, local or national, in support of their idea, councils and governments should be obliged to consider their suggestion. This would be a way of re-connecting the principles important to single-issue groups with the democratic process.

Helena Kennedy is nothing if not democratic, so her report recommends that the Electoral Commission should encourage a wider representation in Parliament and councils of groups who are, or feel themselves to be, excluded from standing for election. Independents are to be welcomed, the parties' suffocating control of the lists of candidates on offer to voters should end and the voting and candidacy age should be reduced to 16, according to the Power Commission.

In an effort to patronise the report, some politicians have fastened on to this last point as pointing to its utopian nature. But if 16-year-olds can marry and therefore have a direct interest in the indirect taxation paid in the course of setting up and running a home and pay tax from their earnings, aren't they entitled to be able to vote on these matters?

It's a good report - and I've a good idea of how the Scottish Parliament can use it. But if you have your own ideas on the subject of giving power to the people and getting them into politics, get in touch and share it with me.