At the Autumn 2008 Liberal Democrat convention in Bournemouth, there is a motion to extend Direct Democracy slightly in the UK. The motion calls for
- People’s bills : The top 6 petitioned legislative proposals would get to a second reading in Parliament.
- People’s veto : If more than 1 million people petition against a law in 60 days, there would be a referendum on that law.
Lib Dem Motions (pdf), page 11 (discussion here).
Whilst this is a great step forward, my big issue it does not protect issues that are voted on in Parliament, but aren’t laws. The whole Iraq war is a case in point, no matter what stance you took on it, there was a lot of opposition to the war which wasn’t really reflected in the division in Parliament.
One issue with vetoed taking place after the law comes into effect, is what happens to people charged under those laws if they are then vetoed. Making the public vote take place before the law comes into effect is a far more sensible mechanism for all but emergency legislation.
There is also no mention of the other pillar of direct democracy, Recall Elections.
