Pam Giddy, Director of POWER2010, o?
6.30pm April 21st, Hughes Parry Hall (Chancellor's Room), Bloomsbury WC1H 9EF

The CLHG is pleased to host a talk from Pam Giddy, Director of POWER2010, a grass roots campaign striving to give the people a chance to change how democracy and the political system works in the UK.

Last year POWER2010 received over 4,500 submissions from the public on political reforms they wanted to see. In January these were short listed and subjected to public vote. Over 100,000 votes were cast and the top 5 were selected:

- Introduce a proportional voting system
- Scrap ID cards and roll back the database state
- Replace the lords with an elected chamber
- Allow only English MPs to vote on English laws
- Draw up a written constitution

Pam and her team are now working hard to get political commitment to the POWER2010 Pledge and realise each of the reforms. It recently partnered up with the BHA to send 60,000 letters to the 26 Church of England bishops who sit in the Lords unelected and unaccountable, urging them to back a reformed second chamber.

In her talk, Pam Giddy will outline the recent history of the Democratic Reform movement and why 2010 is such an important year for politics. She will explain why change must come from the people and will be putting forward the case that democratic reform must be at the top of the agenda of the next parliament if we are to achieve broader political change.

The talk will be Chaired by Paul Blanchard, CLHG member and Chair of Labour Humanists.


Audience Q&A will follow Pam?s talk and the event will end at 8pm. Then, as is CLHG tradition, discussion will follow in The Lord John Russell, a pub down the road from the venue.

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About the speaker



Pam Giddy is currently Director of Power2010 and a Director of the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. She was Director of Charter88 between 1999 and 2001, where she launched a number of initiatives, including a major campaign for reform of the House of Lords. In 2004 Pam launched the POWER Inquiry to understand why the decline in popular participation and involvement in formal politics has occurred and to provide concrete and innovative proposals to reverse the trend. The report of the Power Inquiry 'Power To The People' launched in 2006 was described as providing a blueprint for British Democracy.

You can read more about POWER2010 here: www.power2010.org.uk


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About the venue

The event will take place in the Chancellor's Room of University of London?s Hughes Parry Hall. The Hall is located by Cartwright Gardens close to Russell Square in Bloomsbury.

Russell Square (Piccadilly Line), Kings Cross (Northern, Victoria, Piccadilly, Circle and Metropolitan Lines and Mainline Rail) and Euston Station (Victoria & Northern Lines and Mainline Rail) are all within walking distance of the venue.

A map can be found here: http://www.halls.london.ac.uk/conference/garden/location.aspx

This venue is wheelchair accessible.



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Cost and booking

Please RSVP to book your place using the function on the right hand side of this page.

A voluntary donation of ?2 will be collected at the end of the meeting to cover costs of the room.

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This meeting is organised by Alice

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