The House of Lords Reform Draft Bill and accompanying White Paper were presented to Parliament by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on Tuesday 17 May.
The documents set out long-awaited options for a reformed House of Lords.
The Bill is grounded in a smaller, 80%-elected House, retaining (controversially) the Bishops. The White Paper indicates that a 100% elected upper House has not been ruled out.
One striking feature of the proposals is that they have nothing at all to say about the functions of Westminster’s upper house. In fact, the White Paper’s summary of the proposals states that …
FDSD Vice-Chair Ian Christie and I headed to the home of former trustee Sir Geoffrey Chandler and his wife Lucy for lunch yesterday. And our conversation turned to intergenerational thinking, and to the challenges of integrating long-termism and regard for future generations into political democracy.
Sustainable development has long been inextricably linked to the idea of ‘intergenerational equity’, that is, fairness as between generations alive today and those yet to be born, whom philosopher and green party politician Rupert Read dubs ‘future people’.
The underlying challenge is one which we and our co-signatories identified in an open letter …
FOUNDATION FOR DEMOCRACY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
PRESS RELEASE
Civil society call for a ‘new politics of the future’
In an open letter dated 1st June 2010 to Prime Minister Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Clegg, a group including chief executives of ten civil society organisations calls for the two to ensure that the government goes beyond ‘New Politics’ to adopt a “New Politics of the Future”.
In their letter, the group warn that short-termism in contemporary politics on issues including climate change, changing demographics, youth unemployment, and environmental and social injustice, could endanger not only the UK’s ability to …
Give Your Vote, a campaign to get the UK’s voters to donate their votes in the forthcoming General Election to citizens of Bangladesh, Ghana and Afghanistan, is launched today, and seems to be attracting quite some interest in the mainstream media and in the world of social networks.
Give Your Vote is an offshoot from the campaign group Egality Now. The campaigners argue that:
“We think we can do better than a world where politicians from the strongest countries decide for everyone else.
The UK makes decisions about climate change, migration, poverty and war that directly affects …
OFFICE OF THE HUNGARIAN PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSIONER FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF HUNGARY IN LONDON
FOUNDATION FOR DEMOCRACY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
UK ENVIRONMENTAL LAW ASSOCIATION
PRESS RELEASE
Hungary’s Green Ombudsman puts environmental futures at the heart of decision-making
A unique environmental watchdog role – protecting the rights not just of present generations but also future ones – will be explained tonight (25th February) at the Ministry of Justice in London.
What lessons can the UK learn from the role of the Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner for Future Generations, Dr Sándor Fülöp? Should we be considering a similar role …
A reflection by Niall Ferguson in today’s Financial Times on the historical significance of the past decade struck me as particularly apt and insightful. He explores the reasons behind the astonishing – and accelerating – shift to the east in the world’s economic (and, ultimately, political) centre of gravity. In the process, he asks what it was that gave the West its “ascendancy”, through the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the ensuing race around the world, as far as the Antipodes?
His answer is that the West benefited from six “killer apps”. These were: “the capitalist enterprise, the scientific …
In a new paper published on this website, sustainability campaigner Charles Secrett sets out a possible pathway for achieving revolutionary change towards democracy, environmental justice and sustainable development.
As Charles explains: “Currently, we have no visionary text explaining the intersect between (those heavy but crucial concepts) democracy, environmental justice and sustainable development. The task now upon us, as chaos increasingly bites the world over, is to find a development path that can sustain and improve life, without chasing the chimera of perfect answers to all problems.
With no convenient scripture to hand, is there another way to bring about …
I went to an excellent Sustainable Development Commission/Earthscan panel discussion yesterday afternoon for the launch of Professor Tim Jackson’s new book, “Prosperity without Growth”. Other panelists were Professor Lord Tony Giddens, Jo Swinson MP and Ed Crooks.
The discussion was based on Professor Jackson’s central argument that building a new economic model fit for a low carbon world is ‘the most urgent task of our times’.
There was some discussion at the event about the extent to which getting to this economy ’fit for purpose’ depends on the state of our democracy.
In his book, Professor Jackson argues that “…
Conversations in the US this week have prompted me to reflect on the potential for the idea of the ‘consumer-citizen’ to drive democratic innovation for sustainable development.
The Consumer Citizenship Network describes a ‘consumer citizen’ as “an individual who makes choices based on ethical, social, economic and ecological considerations. The consumer citizen actively contributes to the maintenance of just and sustainable development by caring and acting responsibly on family, national and global levels”.
Alternatively, in a 2006 paper, Martin Powell, Shane Doheny and Ian Greene describe another approach in which the citizen is understood as a consumer of public …
One common question in our work is ‘what sorts of changes could help to get democracy working for sustainable development? Give me some examples’.
One answer is to point to existing examples of innovations designed to help parliaments to integrate long-term thinking into their decisions.
There are three examples and one idea that I want to highlight here.
In Israel, the Knesset passed legislation to enable the creation of a Commission for Future Generations, a non-political entity which operated from 2001 until 2006.
The Commission’s functions lay in four areas: providing opinions on bills, secondary legislation and regulation of …
Climate change presents the biggest challenge to democracy of any in the burgeoning list of environmental and social pressures. And there is already a body of evidence that climate change is shaping democracy. Climate Camp offers some examples.
Earlier this year, I went to a Climate Camp meeting in London. In the wake of the London G20 protests, I was interested to learn more about Climate Camp, but also casting about for inspiration for work on “direct action, democracy and sustainable development”. Please comment if you have ideas on that.
I asked one of the climate campers what we could …
