Introduction
We request that the UK government calls for referendums in the UK, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, to decide if the amendments proposed here should be implemented or if we should continue with parliamentary democracy.
Summary of Amendment 1: The Legislative Process
Empowers the Electorate to vote on Bills.
Summary of Amendment 2: The Referendum Cycle
Empowers the Electorate to create referendums.
Amendment One: The Legislative Process
- After a Bill has passed through Parliament, the Bill must be passed to the Electorate for voting and be approved by a majority for it to receive Royal Assent. Parliament may pass Consolidation Bills, and Bills for the sole purpose of abiding by international agreements without the Electorate’s approval. Local Bills may only be voted on by voters in constituencies directly effected. Bills relating to devolved matters of Northern Ireland, Scotland, or Wales may only be voted on by members of the Electorate of each respective country.
- Once a month, there shall be a Voting Day. All Bills that passed through Parliament at least a month prior to the Voting Day shall be available for the Electorate to vote on.
- If a Bill containing amendments to recurring taxes, expenditures, or supply and appropriation provisions is not approved by the Electorate, the current rates of these recurring elements shall remain in use until a new Bill is approved by the Electorate.
- Emergency legislation shall not require approval from the Electorate to receive Royal Assent. However, the Act shall be on the ballot of the first Voting Day after a month has passed since it received Royal Assent, unless the Act is no longer in force. If approved by a majority of voters, the Act shall remain in force. If rejected by a majority of voters, the Act shall remain in force, but must be amended. The amended Act shall be on the ballot of the first Voting Day after a month has passed since it received Royal Assent. If rejected again, the Act shall no longer be in force.
Amendment Two: The Referendum Cycle
- The Entry Stage
- For one month, members of the Electorate may vote on and create referendums online. Voters may change their own votes. Each creator shall only have one referendum open at a time. Creators can only close their own referendum in the first week of an Entry Stage. Once closed, the referendum shall no longer be publicly visible. Votes received for referendums in one Entry Stage shall be carried over to succeeding Entry Stages. Creators shall choose whether their full name and their contact information is private or public each time they create a referendum. Voters shall choose whether their full name is private or public each time they vote.
- Once the Entry Stage has concluded, the referendum with the highest net approval rating by vote count that meets the criteria will be chosen by the government to be passed to the Focus Stage. A written explanation shall be provided by the government if a referendum receives the highest net approval rating but is rejected for failing to meet the criteria.
The criteria for referendums:
- It seeks to create, amend, or repeal legislation.
- Specific values and dates are provided, if it seeks to create, amend, or repeal an item of government income or expenditure.
- The referendums of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales shall only relate to their respective devolved matters. The referendums of the UK shall not relate to the devolved matters of Northern Ireland, Scotland, or Wales.
- It does not seek the same outcome as legislation currently before Parliament or the Electorate.
- It does not seek a conflicting outcome to legislation currently before Parliament or the Electorate.
- If a referendum seeks an outcome that would breach an international agreement the UK is party to, the referendum must also have stated that it seeks for the UK to leave the relevant agreement.
- The Focus Stage
- The referendum shall be on the ballot of the first Voting Day after a month has passed since it was approved by the government. If rejected by a majority of voters, the Referendum Cycle will return to the Entry Stage. If approved by a majority of voters, the referendum will go to the Committee Stage.
- Voters that approve of a referendum must take note of the serial number on their ballot, to vote at the Final Stage.
- The Committee Stage
- The government shall determine whether a Bill or Statutory Instrument (SI) is required to fulfil the purpose of the referendum.
- A Bill or SI shall be drafted.
- The Bill or SI shall be sent to the committee stage.
- The Bill or SI may be amended.
- The Bill or SI shall then be passed to the Final Stage.
- The Final Stage
- The Bill or SI shall be on the ballot of the first Voting Day after a month has passed since it passed the Committee Stage. There will be a section on the ballot for voters that approved of the referendum at the Focus Stage to enter their serial number.
- If a majority of voters approve it, the Bill or SI shall be sent for Royal Assent.
- If a majority of voters reject it, the Bill or SI shall be amended. The amended version shall be sent to the Committee Stage before entering the Final Stage. If a majority of voters reject the amended version, the Referendum Cycle shall return to the Entry Stage.
Notes on True Democracy – Phase One
What does True Democracy mean? For me, it is a democracy in which the Electorate choose the powers they have.
If you believe these amendments do not go far enough in improving our democracy, or if they are found in practice to be flawed, it should be kept in mind that the Referendum Cycle gives the Electorate the opportunity to amend all legislation and Parliament may also make legislation to improve True Democracy. It’s not lost on me that there are many more ways in which our democracy can be improved, but I consider it important to keep the amendments proposed at this initial stage to a minimum, as too many at once would confuse our message and bring about too many changes at once.
Amendment 1: The Legislative Process
Amendment 1.1
Read about the current legislative process, and Consolidation Bills.
Find Bills currently before the UK Parliament, the Northern Irish Assembly, the Scottish Parliament, and the Welsh Parliament.
Amendment 1.2
Whilst it is true that monthly Voting Days would increase election costs, the total cost would remain a fraction of government expenditure. The 2017 general election cost £140.85M. £98.31M was spent on running the election, and £42.54M was spent on ‘the delivery of elections addresses’. Total Managed Expenditure (TME) for 2017/18 was £980.3B, the general election was 0.014% of this. If we multiply this value by 12, the cost of the monthly Voting Days would have been just 0.17% of the TME for 2017/18.
Amendment 1.3
An example of a recurring tax to be automatically re-applied when a new Bill has not achieved the Electorate’s majority approval in time would be corporation tax. Conversely, a one-off tax, such as a one-off wealth tax, would not be automatically re-applied. Taxes due to end at a specified date will still end at that date unless stated otherwise by an update, for example the Energy Profits Levy which is currently set to end in March 2029.
An example of a recurring expenditure to be automatically re-applied is public health services. A one-off expenditure, for example on an infrastructure project, would not automatically be re-applied. Expenditure due to end at a specified date will still end at that date, an example being payments to government bondholders.
Read about Supply and Appropriation.
Amendment 1.4
Read about emergency legislation.
Amendment 2: The Referendum Cycle
The Entry Stage
Initially, I considered including the option of voting online for Bills, but abstained from doing so due to criticisms of online voting by cybersecurity experts.
Estonia has had online voting for elections at the national level since 2005, and there have been no reported instances of significant voter fraud. However, their online voting system has been criticised for its security flaws. In the 2022 leadership race for the Conservative Party, online voting was permitted, it was criticised for its security flaws, but there have been no reports of successful cyberattacks. Some countries allow online voting but in limited capacities, for citizens living abroad, as an example.
Although I believe that online voting should not be used for the Legislative Process at the moment, I consider it acceptable for the Entry Stage of the Referendum Cycle, as the Focus Stage and Final Stage do not allow online voting, those two stages provide the security of offline voting. This is similar to our current process for petitions, they may be created and signed online, and those with 10,000 signatures receive a response from the government, and those that receive a 100,000 are considered for debate in Parliament.
Read about the devolved matters of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
The Focus Stage
The Focus Stage is vital not only because it provides the security of offline voting, but also because it will allow the Electorate to focus their attention on one referendum. During the Entry Stage there could potentially be thousands of referendums open for voting on, as any member of the Electorate can create one.
The Committee Stage
Committee Stages vary in the amount of time they take to be completed. Committee Stages can last for months. Such delays are likely to frustrate the Electorate as there will be other referendums they will hope to process. For the time being, I think that such delays may be advantageous, as it would give the Electorate the chance to become accustomed to the process without being overwhelmed by too large a quantity of referendums. Once the Electorate are accustomed to this process, they may want to consider amending the Referendum Cycle so that a new Entry Stage is started every month even if other referendums are already in the latter stages of the cycle.
The Final Stage
The purpose of the Final Stage is to ensure the Bill or SI is true to spirit of the referendum.
Serial numbers on ballots at the Focus Stage are to be noted by voters that approve of the referendum then recorded by them on ballots at the Final Stage, to ensure the vote at the Final Stage is only by voters wishing to maintain the spirit of the referendum. Election staff will need to check the serial number entered on a ballot at the Final Stage corresponds to a ballot in favour of the referendum at the Focus Stage.
The legislative process of the Referendum Cycle is an abridged form of the current process for Bills. Any stages not mentioned in the main text are not to be included.