Philip Pullman has signed a call for a ‘public jury’ in Britain, which would take away the power from the ‘feral’ elite who seem to run the country. The call blames three significant crises of recent times - the MPs’ expenses, the bankers’ bonuses and the phone hacking scandal – on politicians, bankers and media moguls, who, left to their own devices, “could not regulate themselves.”
The group, whose signatories include Greg Dyke, former director general of the BBC, says that 1,000 citizens should be selected at random to sit on a public jury that will propose reforms to banking, politics. The jury, to be funded from the public purse, would examine:
- Media ownership.
- The financial sector’s role in the crash.
- MP selections and accountability.
- Policing and public interest.
- How to apply a “public interest first” test more generally to British political and corporate life.
To support the call for a People’s Jury for the British Public Interest go to www.compassonline.org.uk