Pam Giddy Replies

Pam Giddy has posted on Our Kingdom to clear up the confusion over the "at least three" rule change.

When we start asking supporters to take the Pledge to their candidates, it is exactly that - the Pledge, all five parts - that we will ask them to take. We are asking for our supporters and volunteers to back at least three, but they will be presenting all five to candidates and explaining to them the process through which the ideas came about.

Like anyone else, a candidate can sign if they back a majority of the ideas - hence the need for them to be presented with all 5. However, we also want to know exactly where the candidates stand on each of the issues and their responses will be tracked on our website so people can see which reforms on the Pledge they back.

So if you agree with at least three of the reforms on the Power2010 Pledge you can ask your prospective MPs if they agree with at least three, and if they do then they can sign the five point pledge.

Unfortunately this means that for the most part my problem with the revised Power2010 still stands:

It was my understanding that the five top reforms would form the Power2010 Pledge that prospective MPs would be lobbied to commit to in its entirety, thereby forcing constitutional reformers to consider the English dimension alongside the other constitutional reforms. It is my view that the other reforms in the top five (with the exception of ID cards/database state) should not be undertaken without resolution - or at the very least, consideration - of the English Question. Unfortunately Power2010 changed the rules without informing us, and after voting finished we found out that, actually, voters would be required to agree with only "at least three" of the top five reforms and ask their candidates to commit to those. So unfortunately the likes of Unlock Democracy and their cohorts can now just urge their supporters to support three reforms without consideration of the English Question.

The only reform on the Power2010 Pledge that I support on its own, as a stand alone reform, is "Scrap ID cards and roll back the database state". My willingness to support the rest is entirely dependent on all four reforms being considered in the same breath

The pledge is divisible, it is pick n mix, because both voters and candidates only have to choose three that they agree with; though candidates might conceivably pick a different three to the threesome that the lobbying voter wants them to.