The Plan: Twelve months to renew Britain


Daniel Hannan MEP and Douglas Carswell MP go for it:

Hannan and Carswell show how a future government could actually shift powers back, from Brussels to Westminster, from Whitehall to town halls, from the state to the citizens. Their plan aims to restore honour and meaning to the ballot box. It would disperse power among communities, through localism and through referendums.

Skim reading suggests this document is both magnificent and magnificently readable with 30 concrete, detailed proposals to renew Britain:

  1. Abolish MPs’ perks
  2. MPs to be bound by the same laws as everyone else
  3. Elect the House of Commons Speaker by secret ballot
  4. Confirm Crown appointments of senior Commons Clerks
  5. Elect select committee chairmen
  6. Parliamentary committee hearings to appoint the heads of non-departmental public bodies
  7. Parliamentary committee hearings to appoint Permanent Under Secretaries of State and the heads of Executive Agencies
  8. Annualised budgets for non-departmental public bodies
  9. Scrap state subsidised political broadcasts for political parties
  10. Scrap state-funded electioneering for political parties
  11. Scrap use of public money for political parties
  12. Require all donations of over £1,000 to be registered
  13. A smaller ministerial payroll
  14. Open primaries
  15. Sheriff Bill
  16. Scrap the Human Rights Act 1998
  17. Withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights
  18. A Bill to guarantee the supremacy of Parliament against foreign treaties and domestic judicial activism
  19. Appoint senior judges through parliamentary hearings
  20. Parents’ Freedom Bill
  21. Schools’ Freedom Bill
  22. Localism Bill
  23. Set councils free
  24. Healthcare to allow opt outs but guarantee treatment for those who do not
  25. Local welfare
  26. The Great Repeal Bill (YES!)
  27. Parliamentary committee hearings to appoint Heads of Mission, Ambassadors and High Commissioners
  28. Parliament to control trade policy
  29. Direct democracy – local
  30. Direct democracy – national

Please do invest £5 to download a copy.

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