From parliament to the people

The period of the ban would be several weeks long. (We already have media blackouts, but only for a matter of hours.) The ban would include letters to the editor of major newspapers and letter-box drops (as these can be organised to be on a very large scale). There would need to be huge penalties for defying the ban. Exempt from the ban would be the promotion of a point of view to an audience in a building (for example, church or hall).

Meanwhile, the authorised Yes and No camps would prepare their arguments and before the ban period expired, they would exchange their arguments to be scrutinised by the other side for their factual content. At the end of the ban period, the mutually acceptable Yes and No arguments would appear side by side in all major newspapers.

Following the people’s decision, there would be no point in having any further discussion as the case has been closed by order of the people and cannot be reopened for a set period of time (maybe 10 years).

This process of “closing the case by order of the people” can be of benefit in emotional issues such as legal abortion, legal euthanasia, therapeutic cloning, punishment of pedophiles and so on. It would put an end to the never-ending ravings on blogs and talk-back radio.

However, compulsory voting would be a sticking point. When voting is compulsory, the vote of a keen political watcher can be exactly nullified by the vote of someone who cannot remember who he voted for. When voting is compulsory, many cast invalid votes and many cast valid votes for people they do not wish to vote for.

As the purpose of the reform would be to relieve the frustration of having no input into the direction the country was heading, only the genuinely frustrated will wish to vote - and when they did, it would be done properly.

Summary

There is a general feeling of impotence among voters, whether they are poor or rich, educated or uneducated. Utilising digital technology, we could have frequent voting on specific issues within the scope of the average person’s understanding. And, we would need non-compulsory voting to enable this to be achieved effectively.

This innovation would be just a penetration of the barrier. From then on the real target would be the parliamentary culture. It may take several years to achieve any real change, but it is time to get moving towards that goal.