Washminster

Washminster
Washminster

Monday 29 June 2020

Ideas from France

 A Citizen's Convention on Climate in France, which consisted of 150 randomly selected citizens, reported its final conclusions after nine months of deliberation. You can read the (English version) of their report here.

A Citizen's Convention to discuss an issue of great importance is an interesting idea - certainly not representative democracy as we knew it, but as we are seeing in many countries - and the UK and the US are worrying examples - democracy is being smothered to death, by interference in the democratic process - not just by hostile regimes, who have their own fears of democracy - but through the influence of massive amounts of money. We've seen both of those in the UK Brexit Referendum & 2019 General Election and US Politics. Is it perhaps time to build new structures to better represent the aspirations and wishes of ?

What do you think?

Then there are the proposals themselves - what do you think of them?

Both questions deserve to be discussed - and while I'd love to hear from you through - it's more important that you discuss with your friends, family, co-workers, and with and within political parties.

Could France have some ideas that could be used in the UK and USA? - both on procedure and policy?

Today, the Guardian reported -

"Emmanuel Macron has promised an extra €15bn (£13.7bn) for measures to combat the climate crisis over the next two years and a referendum on whether to introduce the crime of “ecocide” for harming the environment.
The measures were announced just hours after environmental candidates sparked a green wave across France with major gains in local elections in which the president’s governing party failed to make its mark.
At a meeting with members of the Citizens’ Commission for the Climate – a committee of 150 randomly chosen French people that reported back after a nine-month deliberation last week – Macron promised extra funding and strong measures.
He said he accepted all but three of the 149 recommendations put forward by the commission.