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COMMENT
 
Power to the people?

ARE we entering a new terrain in British politics? Is it possible that the remarks on the need for ‘localism’ by communities minister David Miliband and the report ‘Power to the People’ by Dame Helena Kennedy’s committee on democracy, amount to a sea-change by the political class that will bring politics back to the people?
It is difficult to doubt the good intentions of the Kennedy committee – capping donations to parties, state-funding local parties, limiting the cross-ownership of the media and giving more power to local authorities.
But will this ever happen? The British establishment is a dab hand at setting up commissions and committees and then burying their findings.
Dame Helena and her colleagues only discovered the obvious – that people are alienated and have no interest in politics because they feel powerless. And who can blame them?
As our culture, life-styles and politics become – certainly under New Labour – more and more Americanised, with the rise of presidential-style politics, cities run by mayors and local authorities run by small executive cabals, is it possible that those with power will gracefully step aside?
For every decision taken by elected politicians at local or national level you will find other decisions affecting our lives taken by unelected quangos.
This week an unelected Standards Board suspended the elected Mayor of London.
In the New Journal this week we report the protests by residents in West Hampstead (see page 10) against the removal of trees shielding them from a railway line. And what happens? A body unaccountable to the electorate, Network Rail, has told them to get lost.
Next week, a committee will take a decision on the future of King’s Cross (see pages 8 and 9) even though it has had only a few days to study what is commonly accepted as one of the most detailed and complex reports ever published by a local authority.
Again, objections by residents that the report is being undemocratically rushed through, are being simply brushed aside.
Power to the people? Not many signs of it this week.
Then comes a remark by David Miliband (see page 6) who suggests the government may now reverse gears and spend nearly £300 million on council homes in Camden.
Is there a glimmer of light here? Does Miliband really mean it when he exalts the notion of ‘localism’? When he expounded the idea a fortnight ago, cynics dismissed it as spin. But is it?
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