Direct Democracy will tomorrow launch its third major publication, written by Douglas Carswell MP and Daniel Hannan MEP. The Plan: 12 months to renew Britain sets out a legislative programme that the authors believe would take a single session of Parliament, accounting for recesses, but change Britain for ever.
The original Direct Democracy publication, subtitled Agenda for a New Model Party, argues for the Conservatives running and government unambiguously as the anti-Establishment, anti-centralist party, devolving power either back to the individual or to the lowest possible level of government. The book identified voters’ dissatisfaction with politicians and reluctance to vote as a rational response to the way in which Britain is governed, with the decisions most clearly affecting people’s lives more often taken by quangos and bodies of supposed expert opinion than by elected politicians. Released following the 2005 General Election, three out of four leadership contenders – David Cameron, David Davis and Liam Fox – endorsed the pamphlet. The proposal of elected sheriffs is now Conservative Party policy. This was followed by the Localist Papers, serialised in the Daily Telegraph.
Openly radical, The Plan applies these general principles to produce a policy and legislative programme. The book includes proposals for the use of referendums to allow citizens to initiate and to halt legislation, and a Great Repeal Bill, abolishing thirty laws, many selected from ConservativeHome readers’ comments to Douglas Carswell’s CentreRight thread ‘What laws would you repeal?‘. The book has chapters devoted to pitfalls and voters’ dissatisfaction in areas from health care to foreign policy.
ConservativeHome will be covering The Plan’s launch event tomorrow evening. The book can be ordered online now.
Peter Cuthbertson