AN MP has launched an online experiment asking voters to help him draft a law.

Clacton and Harwich MP Douglas Carswell wants to use the internet to allow people to make their own law he will present to Parliament.

He said there is currently no way for voters to have a say on laws being written by politicians, but the web could allow people to play a collaborative role in law-making.

“I wanted to see if it was possible to draft a bill to present to the House of Commons using collaborative intelligence,” Mr Carswell wrote on his blog.

“Up until now, we’ve left it to the professional politicians to initiate laws and draft legislation, or worse, EU commissioners and quangocrats.

“I want to see if we could have a system of open source politics and direct democracy, so that everyone can have a say.”

Mr Carswell has posted his idea for a Great Repeal Bill, intended to abolish restrictive laws and regulations, on to the Wikiversity website and is encouraging internet users to debate why certain laws should be included or excluded from the bill.

He said: “The Great Repeal Bill seemed an ideal candidate for this experiment since it requires experience of over regulation, rather than specialised technical knowledge.

“I hoped that by throwing it open to everyone, I’d get to hear about red tape and regulation that folk in SW1 are unaware of.

“The range of suggestions has been pretty extraordinary.”

Mr Carswell said that with the help of contributors to the site, his initial bill has been rewritten and reordered.

“It reads much better,” he added. “Not all the suggestions seem in keeping with the purposes of the project or sensible, but the extraordinary thing about Wiki collaboration is such contributions tend to be short-lived.”

Mr Carswell said he hopes the draft bill can be presented to Parliament.

To have your say, go to http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Great_ Repeal_Bill