Assembly Project

Last September, Britain’s embattled centre-left government announced they would be introduced a compulsory digital ID. Although polls in the last few years had found public opinion more open to a government ID system, the initial public reaction was far more divided. Opposition surged and a petition against the proposal soon drew millions of signatures in just a few days. The government was forced into another U-turn, backing away from making it compulsory, but even an optional one is contentious. Although quite a few countries are implementing something similar, it’s a harder sell in Britain as the country doesn’t have an existing system of government ID cards.

I am undecided on digital ID myself. What I think is important is the manner in which the policy was handled. The government’s initial approach was an example of using the DAD approach instead of the EDD approach. The DAD approach is Decide, Announced, Defend. The EDD approach is Engage, Deliberate, Decide.

There are several problems with the DAD approach, mainly that it results in decisions being made by a small section of the political elite. Voters don’t like it, and they’re more likely to oppose a policy if they feel it has been unjustly and undemocratically imposed on them. The DAD approach also results in decisions being made without the scrutiny that would reveal problems with either the policy itself or the way it’s being sold. It is thus prone to becoming DADA when a fourth stage is added — Abandon.

Darren Jones, the minister who announced the citizens’ assembly.

This week, the government announced a new approach. It sounds more like EDD: an online consultation followed by a randomly-selected citizens’ assembly. It will also be accompanied by various in-person events to engage with the public.

There is a lot here that is encouraging. As the Institute of Government says, it marks as “a shift in tone and substance”. This is, to my knowledge, the first time that British ministers have commissioned a citizens’ assembly and indicated they would give it a role in their decision-making. There have been other government-run citizens’ assemblies before like the Climate Assembly in 2020, but they were commissioned by other organs like the Select Committees of Parliament. The latter became mere talking shops; now there is a chance that things could be different.

It shows that despite their disgraceful plans to curb jury trials, Keir Starmer’s government is still open to sortition. The announcement came from Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister. He’s a full cabinet minister who is in charge of implementing policy, and is relatively close to Starmer. It suggests that his unit see citizens’ assemblies as something best used with other consultation processes rather than a miracle cure, especially since they don’t allow many people to participate. I fully agree with this.

For all the encouraging signs, there are pitfalls. The biggest temptation that the government must avoid is the temptation to offer only experts that present their side of the argument, rather than a full spectrum of views. This appears to have been part of the problem with Ireland’s less successful citizens’ assemblies. The result would be a report that flatters the government but actually sets them up for a fall.

Another mistake is to view it as an exercise in PR, when it should be an exercise in people power. It’s not clear whether endorsement from a citizens’ assembly would make digital ID more popular, and it certainly won’t if it’s seen as a stitch-up by an unpopular government. What citizens’ assemblies can do is show not just what people think, but what they could be persuaded to think.

Right now, British democracy is in a state of crisis. The government is widely unpopular, having replaced another that was also widely unpopular. It has had four short-lived prime ministers and is very likely to have a fifth, and perhaps then a sixth. Its century-old party system is breaking down and polls suggest that the country could elect a far-right government for the first time in its history.

But there are also encouraging signs behind the headlines that an alternative is possible, from the recent success of the Greens to the grassroots activism of Assemble and the Humanity Project. The citizens’ assembly on digital ID could be another. But this will only work if the government has the humility to recognise that sometimes a jury knows best.