In time, the House of Lords will be replaced with a chamber made up of randomly-selected citizens tasked with reviewing and amending legislation created by the House of Commons.
Citizens are selected from the electoral roll and serve a single fixed-length term. A subset of the chamber is changed each year. Leave from work is legally protected, and help back to work included in the cost. Citizens serving in the House of Citizens will be paid equally to MPs serving in the Commons.
Citizens will be selected from the electoral roll and serve a single fixed-length term. A subset of the chamber is then changed each year. Leave from work will be legally protected, and help back to work included in the cost, as well as any reasonable childcare, food and housing costs that would come with the change of occupation. Citizens serving in the House of Citizens will be paid equally to MPs serving in the Commons. Any citizen has the right to reject the request to serve as a member of the House of Citizens for any reason, and it will be illegal to coerce or compel someone into doing so. It will also be illegal to manipulate the process in such a way that the outcome is pre-determined.
Currently serving MPs and/or those in executive parliamentary positions, currently serving judges, and those currently serving in high ranks of the Civil Service, the Church of England, Military, NHS, Fire Service and Police will all be inelligible for this role, to ensure the separation of the various powers that each original role would bring with it from the role of a member of the House of Citizens. Any and all rulers of other countries and, if applicable, the reigning monarch of the UK and family therein will also be inelligible for the role regardless of citizenship status or responsibilites, roles, jobs, status, or privilleges otherwise granted.
@philipjohn - about 7 years ago
Could you explain a little your reasoning for explicitly excluding the CofE, and does that just apply to high ranking CofE people?
Purely on the basis of separation of church and state, in line with the Something New's push for more secularisation in the legal and political systems.
It would only apply to the higher ranks as specified in the policy, a local vicar should not be limited from office as they have very little power in the church and its institutions.
C of E should probably be broadened to other religions too, though I'm not sure how you can word that without covering all faith groups and casting the net too wide. But I'm in agreement, generally. "High ranks" would need defining, but that's maybe a matter of details down the road.
Vote: ✅
@philipjohn - about 7 years ago
Thanks for the clarification! I agree with @floppy on broadening that bit out and agree with the general policy.
Vote: ✅
This has passed, so will be merged, but the C of E wording should probably be addressed in a followup proposal
The OpenPolitics Manifesto
@Autumn-Leah - about 7 years ago