democracy and participation

• citizens assemblies have been proposed by labour as a way to make decisions on constitutional reform and devolution - this can be seen as a way of expanding the franchise
• in Ireland in 2018 a group of 99 citizens were chosen at random to debate abortion, this led to a decisive referendum - this is an example of citizens assembly's allowing an issue that had been seen as a deadlock to be decided on
• it has been suggested that citizens assembles would undermine parliament but they do not replace parliament. rather citizens assemblies would allow for a more representative democracy
• there are three key benefits of wider use of citizens assemblies: policy creates with the input of those affected will have more legitimacy, assemblies can bring people together strengthening citizenship, helps to re-build trust through repairing the relationship between voters and her elected
• the last prime minister to gain their position through a general election rather than through the party machine was David Cameron 13 years ago
• the existence of the House of Lords sees more than 700 unelected people claim a tax free £324 per day for their membership
• the uk's checks an balance system can be seen as weak as major constitutional changes such as Brexit have been made based on a simple vote rather than a process with several checks
• while photo ID voting was implemented to stop fraud the premis of this is flawed: in 2017 there were only 28 allegations of voter impersonation and none of these resulted in conviction
• 7.4% of the UK electorate don't carry a photo ID and would be prevented from voting
• minority voters are far more likely to be excluded by photo ID laws than white voters: 76% of the white population hold a driving licence compared to 53% of the black population
• pressure groups such as stonewall, liberty, and the electoral reform society have publicly condemn voter ID as a "dangerous distraction"
• there have been proposals suggested to tackle the problem of low political participation in recent years: reducing the voter age to 16 which has occurred in elections for the scotish and welsh parliaments, suggestions of making voting compulsory, the wider use of E democracy, changing to a more preportional voting system
• as a result of pressure from pressure group "Dignity in Dying" alongside polling that shows 75% of the UK population to be in support of assisted dying Starmer has pledged to hold a free vote on the matter should he be elected
• pressure group "care not killing" campaigned in opposition to "dignity in dying" but were unsuccessful in gaining Starmers support. this is likely because the public favours assisted dying by 75%
• the government has decided to relax housebuilding regulations pleasing "the Homebuilders Federation" and antagonising environmental groups
• in 2023 ministers amended the levelling up and regeneration bill to scrap the EU rules that prevented housing being built in areas of environmental concern
• the scrapping of homebuilding limits did see some concessions made to environmental groups: 280 million has been given to fund wetland and woodland protection projects, 200 million has been given to reduce farming run off into rivers
• labour criticised conservative homebuilding legislation and environmental concessions for "failing on both housing and the environment"
• the favouring of the homebuilders federation over environmental groups is an example of insider pressure groups being more successful due to their alignment with government ideology
• extinction rebellion announced in 2023 that they will suspend actions which cause disruption such as blocking roads and targeting public buidlings
• the scrapping of disruptive means of protest can be seen as a admission that disruptive means of protest are not successful in achieving objectives
• extinction rebellion have now stated that they want to focus on bringing more people into the movement and are hoping to have 100k people attend their protests
• extinction rebellion's shift in tactic also comes as a response to the public order bill 2023 that makes it easier for demonstrators to be arrested
• insider pressure group National Farmers Union takes a very different approach to criticising government to extinction rebellion: in 2022 the NFU used their annual conference to formally levy criticisms at the government and highlighting that the new policy would put farmers at risk of "not making a profit"
• covid caused extinction rebellion to lose numbers after a drop in funding when they had to stop paying the 150 members who were recieving volunteer living expenses payments of £400 a week in 2020 - this shows the importance of funding
• when insulate Britain blocked the M25 in 2021 they were faced with he potential of prison sentences when an injunction was passed to strengthen the power of the police
• insulate Britain were forced to change their disruptive tactics and switch to less disruptive methods limiting their ability to attract media attention - this highlights the unsustainable nature of direct action as a means of protest for outsider groups
• the public order act of 2023 saw 52 arrests of anti-monarchy protestors made possible at the kings coronation
• interest group liberty has described the crackdown on protesting as a "concerted attack" on civil liberties with police pre-emptively arresting people for planning protests
• when plans of replacing the human rights act with a British bill of rights were floated in 2019 by the conservative party liberty criticised them for creating a hierarchy in which some people were seen as "deserving" of rights and others not
• previously insider pressure group "confederation of British industry", who represent 190k businesses, has now had its ties with the government broken after several allegations of sexual misconduct and has announced that to will suspend all of its activities in June 2024
• the CBI has long been seen as a core example of an insider pressure group due to its broad membership and policy expertise. But, the government distancing itself from the CBI is a key example of how a pressure group's status is not necessarily fixed, even within a singular electoral cycle
• ahead of the spring 2023 budget the CBI called on the governments to write off the full cost of machinery and investments from their taxable profits as well as expand childcare for workers - both of these proposals were included showing their success
• the CBI have not always been successful in their aims despite their insider status: ahead of the 2016 EU referendum the CBI said that 80% of its members wanted to remain and warned the country that Brexit would cause "serious economic shocks" - this is an example of an insider group trying to not only convince the government but the entire electorate and failing on both counts
• the breadth of the CBI's membership allows it to claim to be the "voice" of UK business on key issues. not only this, but being funded by fee paying businesses the CBI has sufficient resources to raise business concerns
• some have argued that the breadth of CBI membership makes it hard for them to have a common aim that is shared with all members: some smaller members have claimed that their concerns are overlooked in favour of big business
• since the Guardian reported allegations of sexual misconduct from the CBI in April 2023 the groups has lost key members such as BT and John Lewis
• the CBI has also faced growing completion from pressure groups who represent specific industries such as UK hospitality - this also shows that the influence of specific pressure groups can vary over time