An idea so daft it could only be dreamt up by intellectuals

Sometimes it takes an intellectual to champion a truly ludicrous idea. Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of literature’s most famous rationalist, visited dodgy mediums in his spare time. Or take the procedural boffin Oliver Letwin, whose “cunning plan” to put multiple Brexit scenarios before Parliament solved little beyond tying the process up in knots. Now Rory Stewart, the swashbuckling ex-diplomat, multilingual Harvard lecturer, and Parliament’s answer to Lawrence of Arabia, has joined calls for a “Citizens’ Assembly” to solve the Brexit impasse.

I admire Stewart, a thoughtful politician with an extraordinary career behind him. We could use more fresh ideas in Parliament. Unfortunately, this is not one of them. Like Universal Basic Income, the idea of citizens’ assemblies is a wonkish gimmick, which resurfaces every so often but nearly always proves ineffective and impractical in real life.

Stewart and several Labour MPS have proposed the scheme as a way of putting Brexit back to “the people”, while avoiding the acrimony of a second referendum. Yet so divided is our country that any assembly would doubtless replicate the stalemate in Parliament. How would you ensure proportionality, and avoid the inevitable squabbles about representation of each demographic, age group, gender, race, political affiliation, and so on? And why should the Government take any notice of their recommendations anyway?

A Citizens’ Assembly did succeed in Ireland last year, when 99 ordinary people took evidence and made recommendations to the Irish Parliament before the abortion plebiscite. Crucially, though, their advice was later upheld by the general public in that referendum, whereas

Britain has already spoken. With the clock ticking, a Brexit assembly would be seen by many as further time-wasting at best – and at worst, a cynical stitch-up – not least because axe-grinding specialinterest groups are often in the background of such schemes. It’s no coincidence that all the MPS currently backing the idea are Remainers like Mr Stewart.

Away from Brexit, the climate-change activists Extinction Rebellion have also called for a Citizens’ Assembly to be tasked with implementing their goal of net zero emissions by 2025. Three guesses what kind of “ordinary people” these would be. Since opinion polls suggest that few would tolerate the drastic action advocated by the group, participants would have to be drawn from a tiny pool if their assembly were ever to agree with Extinction Rebellion’s hard-line vision.

Besides, we already have a Citizens’ Assembly in the 650 parliamentary representatives from across the country chosen every five years. There is even a “council of elders”, drawn from – in theory at least

– the great and the good, in the House of Lords. Of course, what Citizens’ Assembly advocates are really trying to do – whether they’re cross about Brexit, climate change or something else entirely – is to remove power from our parliamentarians and give it instead to a group of likeminded people.

But if our democratic mechanisms aren’t working, the answer is to reform them or elect new representatives. Layering on another (impotent) body for the sake of it is no more logical than Conan Doyle’s belief in the Cottingley fairies.