POWER2010 at the Tory spring conference

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POWER2010 at the Tory spring conference

28.02.2010 // by George Gabriel

Yesterday, the POWER2010 team and local volunteers spent the day in Brighton, where the Tories are having their spring conference.

In the town centre we talked to the public about the pressing need for democratic renewal.

After a day of engaging with passers-by we wandered down to the water's edge, heading for the conference of a political party quite possibly mere months away from power.

And what do we see?

A diverse crowd, hundreds strong with real energy in the air. People from all walks of life all gathered in one place, you could feel people power rippling. Oh no, wait a second - that's the crowd for the X Factor finalists' tour!

Behind the crowds we finally found the entrance to the party conference and a slow trickle of young men in suits talking business.

We brought with us over 300 signed POWER2010 pledges complete with messages from the public to their politicians.

At our fringe event, co-created with the Tory Reform Group we heard some of the Conservatives key proposals for reform, designed to "re-balance the constitution" with a "radical redistribution of power" from the executive to parliament.

An end to the parliamentary guillotine, strengthened select committees, greater parliamentary scrutiny - worthy reforms all, put forward by Sir George Young.

David Trimble's contributions on devolution were of interest, though before getting to them he claimed that the instability of coalition governments would cause near pandemonium in the UK's financial markets, perhaps triggering a run on the pound - a claim rubbished earlier in the day by George Parker of the Financial Times and Mr Trimble's own citing of German bonds as the strongest in Europe.

Pam Giddy, director of POWER2010, spoke of the 5 reform ideas contained in the Power Pledge and their potential to transform our democracy.

What remains to be seen is how Conservative candidates will respond to POWER2010's pledge.

Does the radical redistribution of power stretch far enough to create space for the proposals created in an open campaign backed by over 100,000 votes? We'll have to wait and see.