The POWER Inquiry was established in 2004 to explore how political participation and involvement can be increased and deepened in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

. Its work is based on the primary belief that a healthy democracy requires the active participation of its citizens. Since the historically unprecedented decline in turnout in the 2001 General Election, many political organisations have put considerable effort into analysing the roots of voter abstention and the current state of political engagement in the UK. This widely shared concern over declining electoral turnout served as the starting point for a broader investigation into the health of the connections between the public and the political process. On 27 February 2006, the Power Commission published ''Power to the People'', its final report, making 30 key recommendations designed to "save British democracy from meltdown". The recommendations included decentralising power, from

central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or dele ...

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-l ...

, replacing the

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

electoral system with a more responsive one, reducing the voting age to 16, and giving citizens the right to initiate legislative processes. " Power 2010" is an attempt to carry forward the concepts behind the Power Inquiry into the

UK 2010 General Election The 2010 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 6 May 2010, with 45,597,461 registered voters entitled to vote to elect members to the House of Commons. The election took place in 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom unde ...

Funding and organisation

The Inquiry was promoted as politically neutral, and its steering group, the Commission, included the "great and good" from across the political spectrum. The composition of the Commission also sought to represent directly those not conventionally involved in a project of this type. The Commissioners *

Helena Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws Helena Ann Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws, KC, FRSA, HonFRSE (born 12 May 1950), is a Scottish barrister, broadcaster, and Labour member of the House of Lords. She was Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, from 2011 to 2018. Earl ...

, QC - Chair *

Ferdinand Mount Sir William Robert Ferdinand Mount, 3rd Baronet, FRSL (born 2 July 1939), is a British writer, novelist, and columnist for ''The Sunday Times'', as well as a political commentator. Life Ferdinand Mount, brought up by his parents in the isolate ...

Emma B Emma Louise Boughton (born 27 November 1970), better known as Emma B, is a radio presenter in the UK. Early career Boughton's childhood was spent in Canada before she moved to Birmingham, England as a teenager. She graduated from the Univers ...

* Paul Boakye * Phil Carey (UK) * Philip Dodd * Ben Freeman * Barbara Gill * Bano Murtuja *

Frances O'Grady Frances Lorraine Maria O'Grady, Baroness O'Grady of Upper Holloway (born 9 November 1959) became the General Secretary of the British Trades Union Congress (TUC) in 2013, the first woman to hold the position. After O'Grady presented her resigna ...

POWER was funded and was established by the

Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT) is a philanthropic grant making trust that supports work undertaken in the UK and Ireland, and previously South Africa. It is one of three original trusts set up by Joseph Rowntree in 1904. The Trust ...

and the

Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust {{Use British English, date=January 2018 The four Rowntree Trusts are funded from the legacies of the Quaker chocolate entrepreneurs and social reformers Joseph Rowntree and Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree. The trusts are based in the Rowntrees' home ...

Limited, to mark their centenary year.

Key recommendations

*Donations on political parties to be capped at £10,000 from individuals and £100 per member of organisations, "subject to full democratic scrutiny within the organisation" *A " voter vouchers" system, where individuals indicate if they wish to allocate £3 of state funding to a particular party *Voters given the chance to put forward laws *The

voting age A voting age is a minimum age established by law that a person must attain before they become eligible to vote in a public election. The most common voting age is 18 years; however, voting ages as low as 16 and as high as 25 currently exist ( ...

, and the minimum age at which people can stand for Parliament, to be reduced to 16 *A 70%-elected

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

*Monthly logs to monitor ministerial contact with companies,

lobbyists In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, whi ...

and

Advocacy groups Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups or pressure groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the develop ...

*Restrictions on the powers of party whips *The replacement of First-Past-The-Post with a "responsive electoral system - which offers voters a greater choice and diversity of parties and candidates" for all elections to the House of Commons, House of Lords and local councils. *"The closed party list system should have no place in modern elections." *The election deposits system (currently £500) should be dropped in favour of requiring candidates to provide a certain number of signatures in order to stand in elections. *"The realignment of constituency boundaries should be accelerated." * Decentralising of powers to local government

Reaction

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' newspaper covered the story with a front page splash titled ''Blueprint to give power to the people''. The paper has been "campaigning for democracy" ever since the 2005 General Election, in which the Labour Party won 55.2% of the seats with just 35.3% of the votes. The newspaper ran a petition urging the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

to institute urgent reform of the voting system. Helena Kennedy, Chair of the Inquiry, challenged politicians to, "rise above their party ranks and start treating democratic reform as a non-partisan necessity, not a political toy". The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said that the report dealt with many issues, which were all matters to be debated within parties and between parties, adding that the report had added to the debate.

Oliver Heald Sir Oliver Heald (born 15 December 1954) is a British barrister and Conservative Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Hertfordshire, formerly North Hertfordshire, since 1992. Background Heald was born ...

, Shadow Constitutional Affairs secretary for the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

, welcomed the call to give more power to MPs, but opposed the plan to drop the voting age to 16. The Acting President of the Liberal Democrats,

Simon Hughes Sir Simon Henry Ward Hughes (born 17 May 1951) is a former British politician. He is now the Chancellor of London South Bank University, an External Adviser to The Open University, and UK Strategic Adviser to Talgo. Hughes was Deputy Leader ...

, welcomed the report, saying "British democracy is in crisis whatever the Government pretends - most voters are ignored and most people feel they have no influence".

Conference

On 6 May 2006, the Inquiry concluded with a free conference held at the

Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre The Queen Elizabeth II Centre is a conference facility located in the City of Westminster, London, close to the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Central Hall Westminster and Parliament Square. History The site now occupied by the Queen ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Speakers included Power Commissioners, the Leader of the Conservative party David Cameron and the Leader of the Liberal Democrats

Sir Menzies Campbell Walter Menzies Campbell, Baron Campbell of Pittenweem, (; born 22 May 1941), often known as Ming Campbell, is a British Liberal Democrat politician, advocate and former athlete. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Fife from ...

. The plenary sitting split into eight 'breakout' sessions where particular aspects of the Commission's recommendations were discussed. These sessions, and the organisations sponsoring them, were: * Politics, Citizenship & Young People ( Carnegie Young People Initiative) * Direct Democracy: Ideas for Citizen Power (

Charter 88 Charter 88 was a British pressure group that advocated constitutional and electoral reform and owes its origins to the lack of a written constitution. It began as a special edition of the ''New Statesman'' magazine in 1988 and it took its name ...

) * Reviving Political Parties for Democracy ( Demos) * Parliament: Fit for (What) Purpose? (

Hansard Society The Hansard Society was formed in the United Kingdom in 1944 to promote parliamentary democracy. Founded and chaired by Commander Stephen King-Hall, the first subscribers were Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee. The society's co-presidents ar ...

) * Citizens and the State: A Marriage of Inconvenience? ( Involve) * The Future of Local and Neighbourhood Government (

Local Government Information Unit The Local Government information Unit (LGiU) is a local government membership body, thinktank and registered charity. Established in 1983 as a membership organisation for UK local authorities Local government is a generic term for the lowest ...

) * Clean Politics: Fair Votes ( New Politics Network) * Global Power - Is Parliament Relevant? (

One World Trust The One World Trust is a charitable organization that promotes education and research into changes required in global governance to achieve the eradication of poverty, injustice, environmental degradation and war. It develops recommendations o ...

) The conference finished with a

Question Time A question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers (including the prime minister), which they are obliged to answer. It usually occurs daily while parliament is sitting, though it can be ca ...

debate on ''Prospects for Democratic Change'', chaired by Helena Kennedy with the following panellists: *

Nicholas Boles Nicholas Edward Coleridge Boles (born 2 November 1965) is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Grantham and Stamford from 2010 to 2019. He was a member of the Conservative Party until 2019. Before entering Parliament ...

(Director, the

Policy Exchange Policy Exchange is a British conservative think tank based in London. In 2007 it was described in ''The Daily Telegraph'' as "the largest, but also the most influential think tank on the right". ''The Washington Post'' said Policy Exchange's re ...

) *

Saira Khan Saira Khan (born 15 May 1970) is an English television personality. She was a contestant on the first series of ''The Apprentice'' in 2005, in which she finished as the runner-up. From 2012 to 2017, Khan co-presented '' The Martin Lewis Money ...

(Businesswoman, TV presenter, author, runner-up on the first series of

The Apprentice ''The Apprentice'' is a reality talent game show franchise originally aired in 2004 in the United States. Created by U.S.-based British producer Mark Burnett, the show depicts contestants from around the country with various professional backg ...

) *

Ed Miliband Edward Samuel "Ed" Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliban ...

(Labour MP, former advisor to

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...

and newly appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Cabinet Office) *

Peter Tatchell Peter Gary Tatchell (born 25 January 1952) is a British human rights campaigner, originally from Australia, best known for his work with LGBT social movements. Tatchell was selected as the Labour Party's parliamentary candidate for Bermondsey ...

(

Human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

campaigner) During the conference, David Cameron gave his support to a majority-elected House of Lords for the first time, saying, "In my view the Lords must have a significant elected element if it is to play a full and proper role". He also made strong comments on the future of the

Royal Prerogative The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege and immunity, recognized in common law and, sometimes, in civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy, as belonging to the sovereign and which have become widely vested in th ...

, saying "It's time to look at the power of the Executive to ride roughshod over the Legislature". Many questions were asked of all the speakers by those attending the conference, and a lively debate took place over issues such as

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

for general elections and direct democracy initiatives such as

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

Power 2010

" Power 2010" is an attempt to carry forward the concepts behind the Power Inquiry into the

. Five key constitutional reforms have been identified in a nationwide poll - introduce proportional representation, abolish ID cards, replace the Lords with an elected chamber, allow only English MPs to vote on English laws, and draw up a written constitution. Power 2010 is attempting to get voters and candidates in the

to endorse these reforms by signing a personal pledge.

References

{{reflist

External links

Power 2010 websitePower Inquiry website on Internet ArchiveBBC - 'Political system faces meltdown'Listen to Helena Kennedy discuss the Inquiry
Politics of the United Kingdom Political advocacy groups in the United Kingdom Constitution of the United Kingdom