Polly Toynbee is right to note how British democracy has been undermined by compulsory voter identification requirements, which makes elections harder to access for so many people (Look at the effects of the Tories’ corrupt voter ID rules – and then tell me Britain is still a democracy, 27 June). However, the depth of decline in the quality of our democracy under Boris Johnson and Liz Truss was much deeper.
The report UK Democracy Under Strain, written by me and published this week by Compass and Unlock Democracy, sets out the full scale of the democratic erosion. There have been breaches of the standards in public office at the most senior level. The powers of citizens to protest have been undermined by new laws and “serious disruption prevention orders” which, in scenes more befitting the 17th century, saw republican protesters arrested during the coronation of King Charles. International law has been ignored. The government has attacked judicial constraints on its own power.
Our democratic culture has been undermined by racism, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia across society and within key public institutions. The educational and economic resources that enable citizens to participate have been eroded by historic rises in inflation and declines in living standards.
We are in a pivotal moment for democracy. Against the backdrop of global democratic backsliding and new threats, now is therefore the time for all political parties to make commitments towards renewing democracy. In 1988, a charter was signed to renew British democracy, and this was influential in the democratic reforms that followed. The report proposes a new charter to set the agenda for reform which can be used in the next parliament.
Prof Toby S James
University of East Anglia
• Polly Toynbee’s analysis of the grim state of UK democracy raises some important challenges for Labour. To her solutions, I would add: give EU citizens with settled status the right to vote in parliamentary elections – having 7% of the workforce without a voice is clearly in the interests of capital rather than workers.
But there remains a mammoth in the room. The hugely impactful decision to raise interest rates has been made by technocrats and not parliament. There should be closer democratic oversight of such decisions by including representatives of the four nations of the UK on the nine-strong rate-setting committee. The chancellor should then have the casting vote.
If it is decided not to tame inflation purely through interest rates, alternatives such as increasing taxes or introducing price controls could be considered. These would be for the government to decide.
Mark Ellis
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
• Polly Toynbee omitted to recall that the Conservative government has also changed the electoral system in its favour by abolishing the supplementary vote for directly elected mayors and returning to first past the post. This enabled the Tory candidate in Bedford to be elected mayor on 33.1% of the votes cast – a triumph for democracy!
William Wallace
Liberal Democrat, House of Lords
• Re requiring photographic ID to vote in elections, I live in France, where it is accepted as routine. Rather than wasting time arguing the merits of the system, wouldn’t it be easier to ensure that everyone entitled to vote had an appropriate document? If France can do it...
Michael Bulley
Chalon-sur-Saône, France
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