Freedom Initiative or PR Stunt?
Nick Clegg, the UK’s Deputy Prime Minister in the new Coalition government, has unveiled his promised citizen’s initiative – to roll back unpopular laws by asking for suggestions as to which ones to get rid of.
On the face of it, this is a brilliant idea, if such a campaign actually achieves its goals. It’s also a world-first I believe.
The optimist in me sees this as a positive response to the obvious continued “bloatation” of government – and perhaps a forerunner of more to come. Certainly, if the government acts on the more serious of the “cut laws” suggestions, and is able to press the “civil” service into public service, then perhaps it will turn politics around and start a wave of similar initiatives in other countries.
The pessimist in me sees this as potential window dressing to bolster support for a government that is being forced to do very unpopular things – like cutting spending, benefits and boondoggles.
Time will tell.
Meantime, it will be interesting to see what comments are posted on this new website (comments are there already) – and you might like to follow along:
P.S. I noted one posted suggestion I certainly agree with, to stop the US government from snooping on the bank accounts of European individuals.
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