The Convention Team received this interesting email on Monday from a London delegate, Peter Lloyd. Peter reckons we need more focus on action.
Dear Sirs
First, well done for organising this event and getting such an impressive list of speakers. It is a vital step towards recovering our liberty. Congratulations particularly to Henry Porter and Anthony Barnett.
Second, as you have stated, it is the action that comes out of the Convention that really matters and to that end we should acknowledge at the start that if there are 1000 attendees as you hope, then 990 of them will almost certainly already have the answer “YES” to the first part of Question 1 and to the first part of Question 2, of the three broad questions you are asking the Convention to address.
As it is the government that is the object for the premise in Question 1 and in reality also of Question 2 i.e. it is the government that is using the excuses of “terrorism and other threats, from climate change to pandemics” (but with great help from the media) then we are defending ourselves primarily against the government in both questions.This therefore simplifies the first two questions as combined to the problem of “How do we defend ourselves against Government (and to an extent the media)?”
If this is the case then I feel that one of the most important issues is largely being missed in the Convention. It is certainly not directly addressed as a cause of how the government has managed to do the things about which there is so much complaint. This is the undermining of the British Constitution; Why? Because the extreme illiberal actions would have been mitigated by a properly functioning House of Commons, House of Lords, Cabinet, truly independent Civil Service, truly independent Police Service, MPs more inclined to obey their consciences, and perhaps even the Judiciary. As a result of the undermined constitution almost all political power is in the hands of the Prime Minister, so if he wants to pass the laws and introduce new rules by statutory instrument that take away our freedom, he can. Tony Blair did want to, and that is why it happened.
Third, at the Convention there is a danger that there is a great deal of mutual reassurance, lots of speakers saying exactly what we know and want to hear, and the great warmth of agreement, but no focus on action, including answers to Question 3, until the last plenary which is just one hour from 16.00 to 17.00. Can we get more focus on the solutions earlier,and can we raise the issue of the constitution more directly?
Kind regards
Peter Lloyd (Attendee in London)
Solutions would be great, but I’d like to see substantive action arising out of the convention.
It seems to me that the nice warm collective confirmation bias that will undoubtedly arise on 28/2 is simply not enough. We have a bankrupt political process, a malignant executive and no means of clearing out the toxicity, we the public sit, listen to the rhetoric of our political masters, protest a little, share our thoughts( perhaps at convention) feel a bit better and walk away – again and again and again.
We need a call to action and we need it now, perhaps our first solution option at the convention should be to plan the campaign! in an abridged General Macarthur – “Have plan,execute it and do both NOW”
Ian
As we’ve said on our website, we don’t believe it is a coincidence that so many human rights lawyers support Republic.
The reason our liberties are being attacked has a lot to do with the fact that the PM has virtually all power in his hands. They erode our liberties because they can.
The answer is to replace our nonsensical constitution with a written republican constitution which makes the people sovereign and therefore limits the power of government and parliament. See http://www.republic.org.uk/liberty for more on this.
Clearly there wil not be any solution without action! We are not in a situation which is going to heal itself.
There are basic requirements for action that will need support and participation from all or most of the individuals and organisations attending the Convention
1. The adoption of a common agenda
2. A united opposition in Parliament
3. A relentless campaign of protest