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Left Foot Forward > Published by Will Straw, April 30th 2010 at 5:36 pm

Party leaders to face civil society in “fourth debate”

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London Citizens, a grassroots civil society organisation, have this evening announced that all three party leaders will appear at their assembly in London on Monday. Newsnight’s Paul Mason, who got the scoop, tweeted, “4th debate by proxy?”

Citizens UK Executive Director, Neil Jameson, speaking exclusively to Left Foot Forward said:

“I’m delighted that civil society in the form of London Citizens has been given the chance to respond during the election. We hope that all three party leaders will be engaging with us on our issues in a respectful way. On Monday, we’ll be meeting with 2,500 representatives of the most informed and organised citizens in the UK.”

It is understood that Gordon Brown, David Cameron, and Nick Clegg have been invited to speak for 10 minutes explaining why their party is the best for civil society. A senior cabinet Minister has also agreed to attend. They are expected to respond to six questions during their remarks.

London Citizens are looking for a response to the following demands:

• build the living wage into all government contracts

• a 20 per cent cap on commercial lending and massive investment in third sector, mutual forms of banking like credit unions

• action to regularise the plight of irregular workers

• pledge to no longer put children and families into detention centres

• pioneer radical forms of affordable housing including community land trusts

• a commitment to work with London Citizens during their time in office, seen by Mr Jameson as the “most important”

The Labour party manifesto is the only to contain pledges on the living wage in the public sector while the Liberal Democrats are committed to an amnesty for immigrants. The Conservative party last month announced the creation of 5,000 new community organisers.

  • http://twitter.com/wdjstraw/status/13138476971 Will Straw

    @paulmasonnews More details on the London Citizens event http://bit.ly/bfvHYv

  • http://twitter.com/andy_s_64/status/13138910415 Andy Sutherland

    RT @leftfootfwd: Party leaders to face civil society in "4th debate" http://bit.ly/c2sdpd

  • http://twitter.com/dantrobus/status/13139161286 Danny Antrobus

    RT @leftfootfwd: Party leaders to face civil society in "4th debate" http://bit.ly/c2sdpd

  • http://twitter.com/teresasmisc/status/13140031339 teresa cairns

    RT @leftfootfwd: Party leaders to face civil society in "fourth debate" http://bit.ly/c2sdpd

  • http://twitter.com/samcoatestimes/status/13141409374 Sam Coates Times

    RT @leftfootfwd: Party leaders to face civil society in "fourth debate" http://bit.ly/c2sdpd

  • http://twitter.com/danrees/status/13138476134 Daniel Rees

    Party leaders to face civil society in "4th debate" http://bit.ly/c2sdpd /via @leftfootfwd < should be awkward for Cameron #ukelection

  • http://twitter.com/sspcampsie/status/13138805322 SSP Campsie

    RT @leftfootfwd Party leaders to face civil society in "4th debate" http://short.to/26os8 #ge10

  • http://twitter.com/ianpj/status/13141872711 Ian Parker-Joseph

    @SamCoatesTimes @leftfootfwd Party leaders in "fourth debate" http://bit.ly/c2sdpd > Where are the other parties? A real #democracy #fail

  • http://twitter.com/gethynwilliams/status/13142622767 gethyn williams

    well done all at London Citizens RT @leftfootfwd: Party leaders to face civil society in "fourth debate" http://bit.ly/c2sdpd

  • http://twitter.com/ncvochlo/status/13143111815 chloe stables

    RT @SamCoatesTimes RT @leftfootfwd: Party leaders to face civil society in "fourth debate" http://bit.ly/c2sdpd

  • Robert

    sadly welfare is not on the agenda again, never mind perhaps one day somebody who has some socialism Will ask why are the people at the bottom treated worse then animals.

  • Luke Walter

    I think London Citizens has made a mistake in not opening this out and invite other party leaders.

    We already know the formula with the big three, let them go up against the other choices out there.

    Take the Green Party. Green AMs have backed London Citizen initiatiatives and campaigns, particularly the Living Wage campaign.

    London Citizens should open the evening up to alternative parties and they should extend an invite to Green leader Caroline Lucas.

  • http://torylies.blogspot.com Richard Blogger

    So will this be televised? Or even reported by the major news organisations? I doubt it.

  • http://twitter.com/mrdaveconroy/status/13144235984 Dave Conroy

    RT @ncvochlo: RT @SamCoatesTimes RT @leftfootfwd: Party leaders to face civil society in "fourth debate" http://bit.ly/c2sdpd

  • christina speight

    Boris (Telegraph today) says he has already driven the enhanced minimum wage through in a great number of London businesses

  • http://twitter.com/leahmouse/status/13143059048 leahmouse

    RT @gethynwilliams: well done all at London Citizens RT @leftfootfwd: Party leaders to face civil society in "fourth debate" http://bit.ly/c2sdpd

  • http://twitter.com/marcusmason/status/13145707751 Marcus Mason

    RT @wdjstraw: @paulmasonnews More details on the London Citizens event http://bit.ly/bfvHYv #4thdebate

  • http://twitter.com/mousabaraka/status/13146473489 Mousa Baraka

    RT @marcusmason: RT @wdjstraw: @paulmasonnews More details on the London Citizens event http://bit.ly/bfvHYv #4thdebate

  • Liz McShane

    Where is it taking place and is it open or invite only…?

  • http://twitter.com/selvan_tengy/status/13172840161 tom serona

    Party leaders to face civil society in "fourth debate" | Left Foot …: All three party leaders will appear at a L… http://bit.ly/biicoo

  • http://twitter.com/mark_want/status/13172839455 mark grip

    Party leaders to face civil society in "fourth debate" | Left Foot …: All three party leaders will appear at a L… http://bit.ly/biicoo

  • http://twitter.com/danieltwoods/status/13184545828 danieltwoods

    @jacobweisberg Enjoyed your report on the Gabfest. You should try to go to this on Monday http://bit.ly/bfvHYv #4thdebate

  • http://twitter.com/danieltwoods/status/13187831922 danieltwoods

    @jacobwe Enjoyed your report on the Gabfest. You should try to go to this on Monday http://bit.ly/bfvHYv #4thdebate

  • http://twitter.com/commutiny/status/13265846895 Roxanne Persaud

    RT @leftfootfwd: Party leaders to face civil society in "fourth debate" http://bit.ly/c2sdpd

  • http://twitter.com/paulstpancras/status/13274846721 paulstpancras

    RT @johnringer: Excited to be attending the London Citizens "fourth debate" tomorrow. Last time all three leaders wi… http://bit.ly/95kgSh

  • http://twitter.com/johnringer/status/13274823300 John Ringer

    Excited to be attending the London Citizens "fourth debate" tomorrow. Last time all three leaders will appear together. http://bit.ly/95kgSh

  • http://www.citizensukblog.org/citizensuk-4th-debate-in-the-news/ CitizensUK 4th debate in the news « CITIZENS UK Blog

    [...] Left Foot Forward – Party leaders to face civil society in “fourth debate” http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/04/party-leaders-to-face-civil-society-in-fourth-debate/ [...]

  • John Ritchie

    Where can I get a ticket for this evening?

    The one thing that’s united the country is MPs’ expenses and sadly nothing has been done to drag this issue into the 21st century. We in the commercial world have been submitting expense sheets and time sheets for decades and it’s about time MPs were asked to do the same with each MP submitting on the same formatted expense sheets with month-end, year-to-date and year-end totals highlighted – similarly for time sheets

    Everybody in the constituencies could keep tabs and check against other MPs up and down the country and let’s face it, the tax payers pay for assistants etc who could submit these monthly sheets with copies of receipts to the constituency office for those who have any queries

    The people are indeed boss so let’s have some decisive action where we can at least vote more than one every four years – where’s the democracy in that?

    We can sit at home and arm-chair vote for garbage programmes such as “Big brother” yet those in power cannot be bothered to give us a chance to “monitor” important local issues where millions can be squandered and given the drastic outcome of the Iraq war, the billions spent and thousands of lives lost we should at least have a chance to vote for such issues in the future also

    MP’s have asked us to trust them – it’s about time they put their trust in the public and certainly more than only once every four years!

  • http://bestblogs.labourhome.org/2010/04/30/party-leaders-to-face-civil-society-in-%e2%80%9cfourth-debate%e2%80%9d/ Party leaders to face civil society in “fourth debate” « The best Labour blogs

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