Assembly Project

This is a follow-up post to my recent one on the House of the People project, a national citizens’ assembly run by Assemble. From what I’ve heard, it went very well, with a facilitator I’m in touch with saying it was “a truly uplifting experience”. Assemble issued a press release in which a participant described it as “almost like an answer to a dream” and they announced plans to hold another one next year.

As planned, the assembly came up with five national priorities:

1. Tax wealth by removing tax loopholes and closing tax havens.
2. Slash political corruption by banning lobbying, gifting, and second jobs in politics.
3. Establish a Future Generations Act which priorities people and nature over GDP.
4. Implement an immediate embargo on all arms, trade and support for Israel and other countries which violate international law.
5. Grant councils power to repurchase disused homes and protect renters’ rights.

The environment and housing also featured prominently in the assemblies I’ve helped run in Salisbury, even though those focused on local issues while Assemble’s were nationally-focused.

Other proposals that were also supported:

• A legal constitution which provides the people of Britain & Northern Ireland with the power to decide when to start or join a war.
• Arrest, trial and sentence for those complicit in genocide abroad and in the UK.
• Guaranteed basic income for all.
• Remove the principle of free movement of capital through introducing capital controls.
• End fuel poverty through a universal free quota of green energy after which the cost of energy progressively increases.
• Urgently enact strict AI regulation.
• Democratise the honours system.

Sounds radical? On the face of it, this looks like quite a different different picture to what Britons voted for in the general election of last year, and to what polls say they would vote for now. There’s always a chance that the selection processes for participants and experts weren’t perfect. But there is also another reason why the National Charter sounds radical.

Democratisation makes radical change possible. In the 20th century, universal suffrage for men and women made possible by the welfare state and universal healthcare. By comparison, in pre-modern times, a king could face a rebellion just for raising taxes.

Here’s my grand theory: The more people have a say in politics, the more taxes they will pay. And the more taxes they will want to pay, because they will be more eager to have the government fix their problems. As Joseph E. Stiglitz points out, that’s why “libertarian paradises” don’t exist, and why the Nordic countries have both the healthiest democratic cultures and the highest tax rates. The real reason why people may vote for low-tax agendas is because they don’t trust politicians with their money. What could a new wave of democratisation do?

We may appear a far way off being able to turn Assemble’s experiment into political change. I know of only one MP who has taken interest so far, Shockat Adam of Leicester. (As in Salisbury, the strongest support seems to come from independents.) The House of the People has only been covered so far in radical media like The Canary and Byline Times. But as we saw in episodes from 1789 to 1989, in foresight, revolutions seem impossible. In hindsight, they seem inevitable.

But there are also encouraging signs that the old guard are open to change.

A few hours ago, I was visited by a Labour Party canvasser, who was then joined by my Labour MP. We had a conversation about democracy, and both of them recognised the potential of citizens’ assemblies. There were signs last year that Labour were toying with them, although this has not turned into action and their main champion, Sue Gray, has since left.

Elsewhere, Salisbury Democracy Alliance have been successful in persuading local councillors of several political stripes on the potential of citizens’ assemblies and people’s assemblies. So far, there are signs that there is more to come from this project. I will post more about this soon.

On a final note, one of the organisers revealed in an interview that the event cost £80,000. That may sound like a lot, but it’s good value for a citizens’ assembly – less than a tenth for a national citizens’ assembly and cheaper than many city-level ones. Most of the costs were travel and hotel expenses for attendees.