considered analysis, not merely of the single issue of direct elections but of the objectives, the mechanisms, the implications, of any particular
course of action.
The broad aims of the proposals set out in both the Green Paper and the White Paper of 1984 are no different from our aims today. I should like to remind Members of those aims.
First, to develop a system of government to represent the views of the people and to be more directly accountable to them; second, to build this system on existing institutions, preserving the best features, including, among other things, the concept of government by consensus, which embodies our well-tried system of consultation, discussion and debate and the search for constructive solutions and the common ground; third, that the system should not be set in concrete but should allow for organic and creative change.
As I envisaged last year the physical separation of this Council from the Government Secretariat upon the hill and its location in the centre of our great and growing city, coupled with the expansion and the increased size and composition of this Council, has led to a change in the spirit and style of work of the Council, to more wide-ranging debate, to more questions
and more
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