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Democracy: POWER Inquiry

My Lords, the noble Lord has made his point very effectively. In his speech to the Power conference, which of course was attended by the leader of the Conservative Party and my right honourable friend the Liberal Democrat leader, Ming Campbell, Sir Ming announced that he would be launching an online virtual conference in the run-up to the party conference season—very much in the spirit of what has been said this afternoon. It will maintain the momentum and spirit of the Power inquiry by inviting citizens to exercise their rights to contribute to the continuing debate on the commission’s analysis and to make suggestions for reform. For us, a principal purpose of taking power is to give it away. That will be demonstrable in this exercise. Ming Campbell emphasised on that occasion that we would,"““invite everyone—with any political affiliation or none—to take part in this discussion””," in a genuinely interactive conference. That is the first step towards enabling people with a bottom-up input into this debate so that the momentum so effectively started by the Power commission can continue. My colleagues and I trust the people. We believe that they deserve to be trusted with a truly responsive political system. We believe, with the Power team, that that is the only way to regain their trust.