Reinventing Democracy: Improving British political governance

By David Kauders

“Kauders’ call for a written constitution and a federal association is not just relevant to the United Kingdom but holds lessons for any nation grappling with democratic challenges. Reinventing Democracy is an important catalyst for discussion and a rallying cry for a more accountable and responsive political system.”- The London Economic

“A powerful, persuasive, and timely wake-up call for transforming the UK into a federal state. A must-read.” Richard Moriarty - The Sun

“A compelling and clear pathway out of Britain’s failing political morass towards a brighter, truly democratic future.” - The European

90% of electors want political reform. But how to escape the mess? Britain should adopt a federal structure with a written constitution and an elected apolitical People's Council replacing autocratic and ineffective bodies.

Growing concern about the relative economic deterioration of the United Kingdom led to realisation that the system of political governance is probably an unrecognised cause of British decline. Events over the last few years have provided a fertile supply of examples. All that was needed was some original thought, but nobody seemed to be facing facts.

At the centre of these ideas lie four major concepts:
1. The People's Council to replace the Privy Council, House of Lords, and some scrutiny functions of the present House of Commons.
2. A federal structure, with sovereignty defined as sovereignty of the people of each nation instead of the Crown in parliament.
3. Representation in United Kingdom-wide bodies to be determined according to the Fibonacci series, so that England can be outvoted by Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combined, thereby preventing England treating the other nations as colonies.
4. The book includes a draft written constitution.

“The oldest democracy is now an obsolete model long overdue for replacement.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sparkling Books Limited
• Release date: May 28, 2024
• ISBN: 9781907230226

David Kauders

David Kauders was educated at Latymer Upper School, Jesus College Cambridge and Cranfield School of Management. He is an investment manager and author.

Book preview

Reinventing Democracy

Improving British political governance

Reviews

 "Kauders’ call for a written constitution and a federal association is not just relevant to the United Kingdom but holds lessons for any nation grappling with democratic challenges. Reinventing Democracy is an important catalyst for discussion and a rallying cry for a more accountable and responsive political system." - The London Economic

A powerful, persuasive, and timely wake-up call for transforming the UK into a federal state. A must-read. Richard Moriarty - The Sun

The right of David Kauders to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

Nothing in this book constitutes a financial promotion for the purposes of Section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (United Kingdom), nor is anything in this book to be construed as financial advice for the purposes of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (USA).

No warranty is given with regard to the accuracy or completeness of any information herein. The author and publisher disclaim any liability or responsibility for any loss arising directly or indirectly from the use of any material in this book.

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved herein, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted by any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher. Except in the United States of America, this publication may not be hired out, whether for a fee or otherwise, in any cover or binding other than as supplied by the publisher.

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain permission for the use of copyrighted material. The publisher apologises for any errors or omissions and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved.

1.01

First published in 2024 by Sparkling Books Limited

Copyright © David Kauders 2024

ISBN: 9781907230226

Print: 9781907230202

List of tables

1 Falling living standards in the United Kingdom

2 Derivative liabilities and assets at Thames Water

3 Comparisons of federal and devolved states

4 Further comparisons of federal and devolved states

5 Non-native languages in the United Kingdom

6 Effect of proposed Private Finance Initiative at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary (2002)

7 Private Finance Initiative costs at Durham hospital (2002)

Note: some tables and figures do not display well on older and smaller devices. They can also be found on the publisher's website for reference.

List of figures

1 Example of a multi-choice referendum

2 The People’s Council

3 Governments, if England adopts regions

4 Governments, if England rejects regions

About the author

David Kauders FRSA was educated at Latymer Upper School, Jesus College Cambridge, and Cranfield School of Management. He is an investment manager and author.

By the same author

The Greatest Crash: Avoiding the financial system limit (revised edition 2024)

Understanding Brexit Options: What future for Britain?

The Financial System Limit: The world’s real debt burden (UK edition, hard cover, subtitle: Britain’s real debt burden, includes UK postscript)

Bear Markets: When finance turns upside down (forthcoming)

Acknowledgements

This book evolved in stages, with various contributors helping as it progressed. Michael Meadowcroft read an early draft and observed that despite much analysis, nobody had previously succeeded in changing our political system. Four contributors wish to remain anonymous for different reasons; one did much of the early work on the People’s Council and the responsibilities of governments; two researched Wikepedia. Dan Amery gave me a younger person’s view. Tom Brake read a much later draft and gave me useful ideas about representation in the People’s Council. Georgina Weaver edited the book, Larch Gallagher designed the book and cover, and Sharon Laverick indexed the print edition.

This book is dedicated to

Anna

in recognition of her encouragement and endless patience

"Paint over Mickey Mouse

Burn Where the Wild Things Are

Pulverise the Lego

Set fire to the Christmas tree star.

Seize all the teddies.

Bury every skipping rope

Paint the walls dark brown

Abolish all hope."

– Michael Rosen, Children’s Author, 9 July 2023

Preface

The British public have low confidence in their political system:

Confidence in

Government 24%

Parliament 22%

Political parties 13%

The press 13%

This disturbing academic research was published by the policy institute at King’s College London in March 2023¹.

Three months later, a Focaldata survey for the Institute for Public Policy Research², looking at the entire political system, found that:

90% think the system needs reform

(with gradations of completely, to a large extent, and to some extent)

6% are satisfied with the current system, and

4% do not know.

This book argues that the British system of political governance has evolved to a dead-end. Only by accepting this position can we hope to find a way out of the morass, exemplified by rising poverty levels and declining public services that are unlikely to be solved by a change of government. This failure of political governance has obvious economic and social consequences.

The argument in this book is short and blunt. In my view, British politics are unable to promote compromise and suffer frequent short-term changes of direction. The people have no right to put anything on the policy agenda; instead, they are fed lies, spin, and disinformation. According to Peter Oborne, Britain is ruled by a corrupt political and financial elite³.

There has been an appalling succession of scandals, showing that the British State is out of control⁴. Other countries also have scandals, but British ones seem to affect many people at the same time. Politicians only respond to public concerns when a general election is due. Immediate pressures then force deeper issues to one side. This book attempts to redress the balance between the immediate issues and the more complex, deeper ones that are rarely considered.

If the United Kingdom (UK) is to improve its democracy, it needs a clear vision of what it is aiming to achieve and the steps towards that objective. Vested interests will always raise objections. Yet this statement by the Institute for Public Policy and Research says it all:

No matter who’s in power, our democratic machine needs rewiring. If people are once again to be authors of their own lives, and to feel secure, they must sense their influence in the collective decision-making endeavour that is democracy⁵.

Your author is British, now living in a European democracy. From a distance, the author has perhaps found it easier to see some of the faults in British governance and its political economy than may be apparent to those entombed within a system stuck in the past, closing ranks against new ideas, fixing only immediate problems that threaten the governing party.

This book will suggest scope for improvement for the benefit of the people – the people who are largely ignored, sometimes trampled upon. Democracy should be power to the people against the elites. The fundamental problem is that the British State gives absolute power to a select few. You, reader, may not agree with everything in this book. My purpose is to stimulate discussion, not prescribe a complete answer. Britain desperately needs a written constitution for a federal state, in which decisions are taken at the most sensible level, and what follows can only be a starting point to chart a route for the future. This would reinvigorate politics at all levels, keeping decision-makers in touch with us all.

While this book is primarily about and for the UK, some of the concepts could be adapted by other countries also concerned about sliding into autocracy. The mother of parliaments exported representative parliamentary democracy to the free world, but also provided the model of two gladiators fighting for absolute power. Now it has the chance to lead the world in updating its democracy for the twenty-first century and beyond.

Many other books have been written about the state of British political governance. Gavin Esler, in Britain is Better than This, sets out a much more detailed explanation of the failure of British political governance⁶. Mark E Thomas covers mass impoverishment in far more detail than my short explanation of repeated policy failures, in his book 99%:  How We've Been Screwed and How to Fight Back. His case is that 99% of the British population have falling living standards because the rewards have gone to a select few⁷. Rory Stewart shows how members of parliament in the governing party are nothing more than tools of the current elected dictator⁸. This author accepts all these analyses.

There is one factor missing from every book and think tank paper that I have seen. Nobody else has put forward a draft written constitution for the British people to consider. In this sense, this book is unique.

My proposals for a federal structure with a written constitution and a People‘s Council will be seen by some as too much change for a country liking the way things have always been done. It would amount to replacing centralised by dispersed power. There are two problems with eschewing these principles:

Nothing – or very little – would change, the scandals would repeat with new names but the same mistakes, people would be downtrodden, and economic decline would continue.

The concepts in this book are interlinked. Some details can indeed be altered, and the people should be able to vote on them. But this is not a menu to select from, rather an integrated whole that attempts to move Britain out of its seventeenth century model of two tribes fighting for the right to be absolute despots.

Britain needs to grasp the whole problem of its political governance.

David Kauders

(a founder member of Kauders Portfolio Management AG)

Zug, Switzerland, February 2024

Summary of principal concepts

1. The House of Lords and Privy Council should both be replaced by a directly elected apolitical People’s Council, according to a written, comprehensible, constitution that encourages consensus, and has clear objectives.

2. Sovereignty should be redefined as sovereignty of the people of each of the nations of the UK, instead of the Crown in Parliament.

3. The UK should be a federal association with dispersed, not central, power. The UK parliament could mainly be responsible for defence, foreign affairs, the currency, trade, and common standards.

4. There should be an associate status for overseas territories that are independent, save for reliance on Britain for their defence, foreign representation, and legal appeals. All overseas territories should have representation in the UK parliament and the rights to fully integrate with the UK or leave the UK completely.

5. Near-absolute central power should be replaced by dispersed power. Appropriate part-time involvement in political governance could be possible at many levels, provided there is no conflict of interest. The absolute power of governments based on the divine right of Kings should be ended.

6. Any UK referendum should require a majority of the nations to vote in favour in addition to a majority of the votes cast. Whether to hold national and local referendums is a matter for the sovereign nations. England should not be able to use its numeric superiority to impose its will on the other nations.

7. There should be two-way transfer funding at government level to financially support nations and regions.

8. Although a written constitution could be adopted for a unitary State, only a federal structure would prevent the UK from breaking up.

9. There should be proper controls over political, government, and media communications, including lobbying. All communications should be clear, fair, and not misleading.

10. At present, Britons are serfs to a powerful State. With this draft Constitution they would be citizens with rights and, hopefully, pride in the country.

1  A country that has lost its way

There is a pervading sense that, in Britain, nothing works as it should. Many individual policy failures have brought about near-Victorian conditions, with rising child poverty⁹, deteriorating healthcare, insanitary housing, even reports of people using pliers to pull out their own teeth. Left unchecked, these Victorian conditions may well recreate some relics of the Middle Ages. They arise from an unending series of errors. This book will show how the system of political governance can be improved, to reduce future errors.

British politics are built around two tribes fighting one another, straight out of the English civil war. The gladiators leading the tribes manoeuvre using national media, creating traps for the other side, name-calling like schoolboys, and sowing division. They do little to educate or lead the public, and rarely promote consensus. Power games are more important to our politicians than ‘doing the right thing’, as evidenced by the 2023 retreat from climate change targets together with extension of North Sea oil and gas licensing¹⁰.

British politicians exploit diversionary exercises on a grand scale: for example, austerity, Europe, devolution, and asylum seekers. Ideas have been proposed for amending the British constitution¹¹, but nobody has made the case for complete replacement and offered a comprehensive solution. This book attempts both.

Two items that appeared in June 2023 made the extent of British decline clear. The first was an opinion article¹² by Dr Adam Posen, an American economist who served on the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee from 2009 to 2012. He argued that it is time for the UK to think like an emerging market. But emerging markets are usually developing countries that are improving their lot; to this author, Britain seems to be going the other way. Two days later, the King’s Fund published a report on health outcomes, which showed that the UK is a laggard on these outcomes as regards both treatment and survivability, which is linked to fewer resources (e.g. hospital beds, scanners) and poorer staffing levels than those of other countries¹³.

Brexit has brought the failure of the British system of political governance to a head. Enough people believed sufficient lies to create an economic, social, and diplomatic mistake. Britain’s governance is prone to extremist capture and utterly short-term in its thinking. We let them make a mess then throw the rascals out. Better not to make such a mess in the first place.

Brexit has served to illuminate the damage caused by an unstable winner-take-all political and governance system that is incapable of coping with the complex world of the twenty-first century. Timid policies, incremental changes, and muddling through with piecemeal reforms will fail. Even worse, Britain is slowly discovering that it has no economic choice but to follow European Union (EU) rules that it can no longer make or influence, which turns the UK into a powerless vassal state.

On a scale of 100% democracy to 100% autocracy, Britain must rank as one of the least democratic countries, an autocratic country excepting an occasional change in the ruling elite. The key element of British democracy is that two parties compete for absolute