About the Jury Team

Launched in mid March 2009, the Jury Team is for people who believe in democracy but who have seen how the current party political system has turned the United Kingdom's Parliament and Government into the creatures of a small and increasingly distant group of self-serving politicians.

Find out more background on the Jury Team »

The Jury Team will ensure that the electorate have the ultimate power and that Parliament and Government are both run for the benefit of the country and not for those who work in these organisations. We need to give back to people their pride in their country and its institutions and to let them become the ultimate jury.

Proposals

The Jury Team has four sets of proposals to achieve the necessary practical and political reform:

• Championing policies supported by the electorate but rejected by the traditional parties
• Reforming our democracy to change the people’s relationship with the state
• Strengthening Parliament
• Improving the running of government

You can see the popularity of the Jury Team proposals by

downloading a report presenting the results of our market research.

Championing Policies

The political class have become out of touch with the electorate. As a result of vested interests and electoral cowardice, the current party system does not deliver the policies that people want. Using its own review substantiated by a series of YouGov opinion polls, the Jury Team has researched the issues where the political class and the public have clearly different views, where the traditional political parties are afraid of having a proper debate about subjects which many people find troubling, or where political posturing leads to uncertainty or worse. The Jury Team will legislate for the following policies and then have an authorising referendum before they become law:

1. Holding a referendum on the status of the UK within the EU
2. Limiting government borrowing to 10% of expenditure
3. Protecting bank customer deposits from casino banking
4. Limiting benefits to 80% of the after tax minimum wage
5. Sentencing violent criminals to "army style" punishment
6. Limiting UK troops in Afghanistan to the NATO average
7. Requiring private medical insurance for non-EU citizens
8. Establishing 10 year residence requirement for UK Citizenship
9. Allowing state schools to opt out from local authority control
10. Requiring stores to let customers leave excess packaging

Democratic Reform

The Jury Team has pulled together and reviewed the various ideas for Democratic Reform which have been suggested by charities, think-tanks and parliamentary and government bodies over the last twenty years. It has incorporated these into a series of Proposals in each area which will make the political system more responsive and give back the balance of power to the electorate:

11. Setting up an English Parliament
12. Holding a referendum on the status of Scotland within the UK
13. Giving Welsh Assembly similar powers to Scottish Parliament
14. Reducing the number of MPs by a third (from 650 to 433)
15. Changing Commons elections to proportional representation
16. Requiring referendums on petition by 5% of the electorate
17. Introducing "no-fault" compensation for public bodies

Strengthening Parliament

The third set of Jury Team Proposals is designed to encourage more MPs with experience of the world outside the 'Westminster Village' into the House of Commons by providing the opportunity for proper debate, rather than being 'lobby fodder', in the same way as is achieved by the non-party crossbench members of the House of Lords. The expenses scandal has accelerated the idea of a new style of politician going into Parliament.

18. MPs to be free to vote in line with their best judgment except when bound by their manifesto
19. MPs to be paid according to civil service pay scales
20. MPs to serve for only three full terms of five years
21. Elected Representatives (Prevention of Deception) Act
22. Independent Politicians Complaints Commission
23. Cap donations to political parties
24. Members of Select Committees to be elected by MPs
25. Gold-plating of EU directives to be stopped
26. General elections to take place every five years

Improving the Running of Government

The fourth set of Proposals will give back to the House of Commons its right to choose the Prime Minister rather than having that choice based on a narrow party political system. This will change the focus of future general elections from being based on little-read national party manifestos and shallow promises being marketed for floating voters to the priority being for each constituency to elect the best person to represent their views and contribute to the election of the head of the government.

27. The House of Commons to elect the Prime Minister
28. PM to appoint junior ministers jointly with Cabinet Ministers
29. Departments to be run by a Board
30. Government statistics published by independent body

All Jury Team candidates to be an MP will endorse all of these Proposals as described in this document. However on all other issues they will be able to vote in line with their best judgment. Other new legislation will therefore only become law if a majority of such independent people support it after proper scrutiny, with a referendum to endorse the proposal if required.

The next two months are the time for real change.

If you believe in making the UK a better place to live then come and help us take back our politics from those who now dominate it and do so well from it.

DOWNLOADS from the Jury Team book 'Working Together For The People Politicians Forgot'

• Preface (PDF, 257kb)
• Chapter A - Introduction (PDF, 108kb)
• Chapter B - Championing Policies (PDF, 141kb)
• Chapter C - Democratic Reform (PDF, 103kb)
• Chapter D - Strengthening Parliament (PDF 114kb)
• Chapter E - Improving Government (PDF, 86kb)
• Chapter F - Jury Team (PDF 109 kb)
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• You can also order the book from Amazon