The blog has today been engrossed in How we should rule ourselves, a new pamphlet by Alasdair Gray and Adam Tomkins that has been hurried to press in time for 5 May.
It is a timely reminder of the radical constitutional changes wrought by New Labour since 1997 and how, oddly perhaps, they are not a feature of the election campaign. What, for example, is going to become of the Lords? Has the progressive left decided to discreetly drop the subject because the upper house happened to help derail governemt anti-terror legislation? Is there no more appetite for structural changes to the British state?
Gray and Tomkins gallop breathlessly through the the constitutional history of the British Isles towards a staunchly anti-Crown conclusion. (Music to Observer ears which are ever tuned to a republican frequency.)
They make the point that power in this country is still derived from the top down, with officials and legislators arrogating the authority once inherent in a crown. A healthier democracy might see power wielded from the bottom up, with officials and legislators exercising a mandate bestowed by sovereign people. An old distinction, but one worth repeating. Would it make a difference? Would we drop our alcopops and start behaving like responsible citizens if we felt ourselves to be the repositories of power in the state?
In any case the blog is grateful to the authors for reminding us of the etymology of the word 'idiot'. From ancient greek - idiotes - a private person, i.e. a citizen in the Athenian republic who refused to exercise his right to participate in democracy. Good factoid to wield when taking on election abstainers.
