The Durham Democracy Forum (DDF) is an independent, non-party political group, run by students of the Durham University, designed to bridge the gap between politicians and people, and to empower the public on local and national issues. Briefly, the idea is centred on combining face-to-face interaction and debate with the use of e-Democracy. As a secondary goal, we seek to create a lasting role for students in facilitating democratic discourse in the Durham community. We, at the DDF, believe in the need for an informed and politically active public, in addition to informed and responsive politicians, in order to restore public confidence in, and modernise, British democracy. With the present lack of interaction in, and enthusiasm for, the system, we believe that the remedy lies in a grass-roots public forum (that will meet every 6-8 weeks) as a means of communication and information, and as a source of collective action. In a phrase: we want to facilitate substantive democracy. Following balanced discussion, with experts, politicians and people debating in an orderly and tolerant environment, we want the public to have the chance to influence local decisions on local matters, demand responses from MPs on national issues, as well as publicise the efforts of politicians to engage with the public. We have already received firm backing from the City of Durham MP, Roberta Blackman-Woods, who has pledged to seek ministerial responses to the concerns of the Forum on national issues. The conclusions of the Forum will be collated in the form of a motion on Digital Democracy, the e-Democracy website that allows politicians to respond to voting action of the public. With regard to local matters, the Forum intends to combine efforts with the Durham Area Action Partnership (a Durham County Council body that aims to give community members a voice in local affairs), to engage people in Council budget consultations and public voting events. In addition to this, some local Councillors are expected to attend to interact with those who they represent. Our aspiration at the Durham Democracy Forum is to make the people’s voice heard, and most importantly, acted upon. This aim is the embodiment of our Article of Faith: all who are affected by policy decisions should have a fair opportunity to influence those decisions.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 14:59:44 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015