Labour Campaign for Federalism launches

lcffA new campaign group is being launched calling for the Labour Party to adopt a federalist platform.

 

Labour campaign for federalism has launched an appeal for supporters, saying we must “forge a new vision of statehood” for the 21st century UK.

Here is its launch statement:

The state we are in has to change – we must recast these islands with a new covenant of nations.

The central question too often lost in our constitutional debate is this: how do we share these islands, this common treasury? In other words, how do ancient nations live with our neighbours to ensure our common good and future prosperity?

Many in the Labour movement have been federalists for years or for a lifetime. Others will have been brought to this point from neccesity or frustration. We all now stand in an urgent moment. A federal future can yet open up new opportunities for all our peoples that might soon be lost to competition and chaos. Our ambition must be to lead, as we have often done before. We must forge a new vision of statehood for the 21st century, moving past the frontiers of 19th century ideas of the nation-state.

It is time for Labour to get on the front foot – to argue for a constitution from a position of values. Equality, solidarity and community.

As the Labour Campaign for Federalism we believe that:

  • Labour must urgently develop a lasting and holistic vision for the constitution of these islands.

  • A scheme for federalism should be developed and supporters must campaign to have this scheme adopted as party policy as soon as possible.

  • There should be a wide-ranging Constitutional Convention ensuring democratic renewal that puts people at the heart of our politics and governance.

 

If you agree with these objectives, you can sign up at labourfederalism.uk. You can also follow the new group on Twitter and Facebook.

Related Posts

4 thoughts on “Labour Campaign for Federalism launches

  1. Something I can get behind! This is where Labour needs to go, get ahead of the curve, federalism, but federalism for councils too… As long as one level of government needs another for funding you will never have democracy and never have accountability… its just a blame game!

  2. Federalism and Labour.
    Does make you think though, why wait till Labour finds itself with the same amount of Scottish MPs it had about 110 years ago.

  3. I would like to see a federal relationship between the nations of Britain

    But I don’t think that England should be federalised against its will. There is a lot of resistance to the idea of splitting England up into 7 or 8 federal regions, simply to move towards units of equal population size.

    1. The US gets round this with two federal houses, the House of Representatives that allocate seats per population and the Senate where each state gets 2 seats. You don’t hear California objecting too much to Delaware. But then forget about Scotland and England – make it federal at council level with central national governments only there as regulators and standards

Comments are closed.

.