"Yes, I will. We have a very imperfect system of participatory democracy, because we have a rotten electoral system. The first past the post system does not reflect in Parliament anything like the aspirational end of participatory democracy, and although I do not regard the alternative vote as the ideal …..." Lord Maclennan of Rogart - View Speech
"There are many ways in which one can be an active citizen, and I enumerated some of them when introducing a debate on that very subject in this House shortly before Christmas.
"It rather sounds as if the noble Lord is making a speech of no confidence in his own party leader. Surely that will remove all problems of dubiety about who is for and who is against, because he will get lots of publicity. Mr Ed Miliband has made it clear …..." Lord Maclennan of Rogart - View Speech
"I do not see any contradiction between giving the Scottish Parliament sovereignty over its own electoral matters and the right of this Parliament, which is sovereign over United Kingdom matters, to decide how referenda that apply throughout the United Kingdom should be decided. To abdicate that principle is not a …..." Lord Maclennan of Rogart - View Speech
"I am grateful to the noble and learned Lord for giving way. He gave an American example, because he could not refer to any British example or precedent. However, as recently as November, California—a state close to bankruptcy—decided in one day both to change the party in government there and …..." Lord Maclennan of Rogart - View Speech
"My Lords, I again thank my noble friend for his exposition of not only the order, but also the Government’s reaction to the report of the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments on the defective drafting of the order. It has to be said that this is a long, complex and …..." Lord Maclennan of Rogart - View Speech
"I wonder if the noble and learned Lord would accept that a short guide could, in its appendix, refer to the relevant provisions of law, but that the guide itself need not be an expression of the law; it is simply a guide. A lot of lay people who are …..." Lord Maclennan of Rogart - View Speech
"My Lords, I rather question the premise of the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, about this process being exemplary and democratic. It seems to me that an arrangement which results in an appointed commission making its final determinations, which this House is simply invited to rubber-stamp or overturn, does not have …..." Lord Maclennan of Rogart - View Speech
"My Lords, has my noble friend had an opportunity to consider the possible coincidence in timing of the elections to the Scottish Parliament and the general election to the United Kingdom Parliament in 1915? Would that require some alteration of our legislation?..." Lord Maclennan of Rogart - View Speech