Downing Street Says » National Democratic Renewal Council

Asked who would attend the NDRC, the PMS said that the Prime Minister would chair the meeting and the following people would attend; Jack Straw, Harriet Harman, Lord Mandelson, Alistair Darling, David Miliband, Alan Johnson, Hilary Benn, Douglas Alexander, John Denham, Shaun Woodward, Baroness Royall, Jim Murphy, Peter Hain, Michael Wills, Nick Brown and Steve Bassam (the Lords Chief Whip – to attend when Lords issues were discussed).

Asked if there would be regular reports from the NDRC meetings, the PMS said that this was an important priority for the Government and we had made clear that the Prime Minister s priorities were on three issues; democratic renewal, economic recovery and reform, and delivery of public services. The Government was concentrating on those three priorities and there were three Government committees that the Prime Minister chaired to lead forward Government work on that agenda.

Asked if the Prime Minister would set out specific aims at the beginning of the meeting and if specific proposals on legislation were expected as a result of the meetings, the PMS said yes.

Asked how the cast list for the NDRC had been determined, the PMS said that senior Government Ministers and Ministers with relevant policy responsibilities would attend the meeting. When particular policy agendas needed to be pushed forward, it was done more efficiently with the group of Ministers directly involved.

Asked how the NDRC fitted in with the Constitutional Renewal Bill, the PMS said that the two did fit together and we would be able to say more once the meeting had taken place.

Asked if there were any plans to invite external people to the NDRC meetings, the PMS said that the National Economic Council (NEC) regularly invited people outside of Government and it would not be surprising if a similar approach were taken with the NDRC. The role of the NDRC was to coordinate the Government s work; this was not exclusive and we were not suggesting that the Government alone would take this forward. We needed other means for engaging a much wider body of both public and expert opinion.

Asked where the NDRC would meet, the PMS said it would be meeting in the Cabinet Office.

Asked about the next stage of policy development and when new initiatives would be announced, the PMS said that it was possible that we would be able to say more about the Constitutional Renewal agenda and Democratic Reform ahead of the Cabinet meeting this Friday, but wider policy announcements could be expected in the coming weeks.

6 Comments »

So when it looks like Labour are about to be destroyed under a system they were happy enough to use when it suited them they are prepared to destroy our democracy to stay in power.

It is disgraceful.
Comment by Mr Angry — 9 Jun 2009 on 7:51 pm | Link
What a sham, our democracy is now in tatters. Are we the British people supposed to be idiots. Mr Brown your party may have confidence in you, but us the public do not.
Comment by Jamie Mark — 9 Jun 2009 on 7:56 pm | Link
So the time has come that Herr Brown to become the next hitler? Re-write what he and mendleson see as democracy? Is all this leading to the cancelling of an election by any chance? Its no good, the real people in this country are on to you now herr brown, shame on you and you co conspiritors, shame!The only way your party67 will get in power ever again is by the immediate resignation of herr brown and any other unelected members of cabinet, and no matter how much you keep lieing to the people its too late, the game is up.
Comment by Mr D. Emocracy — 9 Jun 2009 on 8:16 pm | Link
So, here we see Nulabours first steps to dictatorship. Forget it Brown. All we the public want is a general election. We don’t want you fiddling the system in your favour, we don’t want you to get on with the job. We want an election and we want it now. So stop being a spinelss jellyfish and call it.
Comment by Stevo — 9 Jun 2009 on 8:24 pm | Link
Well Gordon, you’ve promised several times to start listening to people, but you’ve never yet started listening. I want to believe you this time, but it isn’t easy. Please show us that your plans for reform aren’t just cosmetic changes to appease us enough to let things go back to the way they were.

We want real changes, so don’t just ask the people elected under the existing system what changes they want. We the electorate don’t give a stuff what you and your ministers want. We want a system that takes account of what we want.

And for goodness sake, never let the words voter apathy cross any politician’s lips again. I think you can see now that we are not apathetic, just sick to death of being ignored, marginalised and fleeced by people we think should be working for us.
Comment by Stuart Cunningham — 9 Jun 2009 on 8:25 pm | Link
I cannot believe the rich irony involved in a Prime Minister, many of whom believe is unelected, establishing a National Democratic Renewal Council which consists of elected and unelected government ministers plus, when the Council so decides, a few outsiders, all of them presumably drawn from the political elite.

How can democracy possibly be renewed from the top down, by a few ministers plus acceptable outsiders deciding how it should be renewed? And is the intention that these reforms should be law before the next election? How democratic is that?

The better way to renew democracy would be to have an election in which proposals for democratic reform are part of the campaign, the winning party’s proposals having a democratic mandate.

The establishment of this council is so obviously a knee jerk and incoherent response to the outrage of the public at MPs’ expenses and the subsequent demand for constitutional reform that I am amazed that the government can even think it justifiable. I know that the government has been working on constitutional reform since 2007 but in an ad hoc, cautious way, making little progress. This sudden rush to reform is no way to change the fundamental rules and processes of politics and government. But then I doubt whether it will come to much.
Comment by Peter Browning — 9 Jun 2009 on 9:35 pm | Link

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» Tuesday, June 9, 2009

National Democratic Renewal Council

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