Power to the People

I forgot to add couple of points to my post the other day in response to Armando Iannucci and his feeble arguments about the current state of UK politics.

So here are another couple of ideas for for making politics more attractive and interesting in future.

In addition to our parliamentary democracies, I would like to see referendums being held more regularly on big issues where the politicians are failing to resolve problems and provide a lead.

Scotland's independence referendum was a huge success and previously unimaginable numbers turned out to vote; democracy was the winner at the end of the day.

I can envisage votes on other issues, occasionally, to supplement the work of Parliament, for example in relation to 'assisted dying' which most Scots support, yet the issue gets bogged down in Parliament where pressure groups are much stronger than individual citizens.

So why not have a referendum on the principle of assisted dying and having determined people's will, instruct the politicians to legislate for change which is not dissimilar to the way the Canadian Supreme Court has behaved in recent days.

What a great reform that would be and I imagine if we proceeded in that way Scots would vote in similar numbers to the independence referendum.

The next point is to make it much easier to vote securely by email and/or text - what's the big deal, especially when there have been issues in recent years over the security of postal voting.

In this day and age there's no excuse for not moving with the times and making life easier for people to vote instead of putting obstacles in their way.

So Armando if you're listening here's a revised list of ideas which you're free to use next time The Guardian asks for an opinion piece about reinvigorating UK and Scottish politics.

• Introduce proportional representation for the House of Commons
• Abolish the House of Lords and have a single legislative chamber just like the Scottish Parliament
• Introduce proportional representation for local councils in England - get rid of 'one party' rotten boroughs
• Introduce elected Mayors for all major cities 
• Introduce a proper and strong power of recall for MPs and elected representatives 
• Deliver real 'home rule' for Scotland which gives the Scottish Parliament effective control over the economy - leaving only defence and foreign affairs to the House of Commons 
• Power to the people - hold referendums on big issues occasionally to supplement decisions taken in the Scottish and Westminster Parliaments.
• Make voting easier by allowing ballots to be cast by email or text.