The Prime Minister says that the days of making policy in Whitehall are over and that Citizens Juries are the way forward.
Unfortunately I don't think it is possible to take that statement at face value - Who are these citizens, who do they represent, how will they come up with decisions and how will these be implemented? In short I believe that these 'Juries' are no more than grandiosely titled focus groups, which will come up with a few ideas which will then go into the normal civil service policy making process.
It looks like Mr Brown is carrying on with the same old Labour Spin.
What we need are real powers being transferred back from central government and unelected quangos to local people to make decisions that affect their parish, their district and their county, not gimmicks designed to win headlines for a couple of days.
