An excerpt from Stand & Deliver: A Design For Successful Government (2014) Ed Straw
Intergenerational and fairness issues will continue as we all live longer. This is a recent phenomenon, and nowhere in the governance of states is this represented. People within government are forced into concentrating on the short term and are constrained by the media and its agenda; financial markets and corporate behaviour are more short than long term. There is nowhere that has the remit and the responsibility to consider the long term and the consequences for the future. We have seen this weakness and its consequences. Somewhere and someone should be looking over the horizon.
Imagine the UK with long-term thinking enshrined at the heart of governance, raising awareness, creating political space, and generating action on the biggest issues of our time. This is where the Congress for the Future would stand. Is there anyone who would not want more of the long term to be incorporated into policy and practice?
This part of the Treaty would give adequate space to the long term through the creation of a mechanism that would:
- Be convened probably annually by Parliament (with rights for members of the public to petition Parliament) as an established part of the country’s governance to consider and pronounce on one or more critical long-term issues.
- Consider issues needing public (as opposed to media-led) debate and the emergence of a new consensus; in practice these are likely to be areas where either a) the government of the day feels it lacks the political space to take the action it should and would like to take, or b) there is sufficient public concern to provoke a petition and so provoke Parliament to put the matter on the agenda.
- Engage citizens (selected on a random basis) and stakeholders in informed, deliberative debate that works through differences in preferences and opinion to come to an informed view about long-term vision and direction for the UK.
- Ensure its quality by having informed high-end deliberation at its core, going beyond traditional consultation and market research in order to research, debate and resolve contentious issues.
- Generate interest and awareness across the nation through media and web-based activity.
- Influence and help create a mandate for the policy, outcome targets and delivery.
- Have a secretariat that monitors progress, as part of the Resulture.
If such a mechanism was in place, what would we as a nation be doing about resource shortages, agriculture and its subsidies, company takeovers, funding research and development, unpicking failed monopoly privatisations, or indeed climate chaos? It would act as a counterweight to short-term ‘something must be done’ quick fixes. It would generate a sense of collective responsibility on issues that cannot be solved by government alone.
