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UK Democracy Bulletin, 17th February

People gather in front of a Democracy Network banner for Democracy Drinks event
Gathering for a photo at London’s Democracy Drinks this Wednesday at Newspeak House (Photo credit: Chris)

Fortnightly news, jobs, grants and gossip from across the democracy sector, brought to you by James Moulding, Louise Dunmore and Max Roche of the UK Democracy Network. Read by 400+ democracy organisations. We read everyone’s newsletters & research so you don’t have to. If you want us to cover yours, let us know: democracynetwork@involve.org.uk

Highlights

  • Nicola Sturgeon resigns
  • Stormont election pushed back until 2024
  • Public Order Bill significant government defeats
  • Elect Her launch new Equip Her election support programme
  • Notwestminster in Huddersfield this weekend
  • mySociety celebrate their 20th anniversary
  • Voter ID new campaign coalition funded

Thanks to our contributors

Although cancelled due to illness, we’d like to thank everyone who contributed check-ins to last week’s Democracy Meetup shared document. We were joined by Jon Morter — The Progressive Alliance, Kathie Conn — Extinction Rebellion UK, Rebecca Deegan — I Have A Voice, Myfanwy Nixon — mySociety, Joe Mitchell — Public Interest News Foundation and Rosie Trevill — Elect Her.

Upcoming Legislation

Significant defeats for the government on the Public Order Bill as Lords defend public protest

Peers voted 254 to 240 against legislation that would have allowed the police to preemptively shut down public processions and public assemblies. Liberty arecelebrating two significant wins; that suspicionless stop and search legislation has been removed as well as the ability of police to issue Serious Disruption Prevention Orders (SDPOs) without a prior conviction. SDPOs are effectively ‘protest-banning orders’ that can be imposed on individuals who have participated in at least two protests within five years, whether or not they have been convicted of a protest-related crime. The win in the Lords means there has to be some conviction for an SDPO to be issued, although a further amendment introduced by Peers will narrow who can be given an SDPO on conviction. Check out this briefing on the Public Order Bill from Liberty for more info on these clauses. The Bill will now have its Third Reading in the House of Lords on 21st of February 2023.

Minimum Service Bill passes third reading in Commons despite lack of impact assessment

The ‘anti-strike bill’, as it has been dubbed by opposition groups and trade unionists, has now moved to the House of Lords after passing its third reading in the Commons on January 30th. However, the government failed to submit an impact assessment to the Regulatory Policy Committee until the 2nd of February, prompting comments from the TUC General Secretary, Paul Nowak, that MPs were ‘voting blind’ on ‘far-reaching new laws’. Public opinion appears largely out of step with the new legislation, with a new report from the Fairness Foundation suggesting that almost three quarters of 2019 Conservative voters and eight in ten Labour voters agree that pay gaps are too large and striking to address the imbalance is fair.

Modern Bill of Rights unworkable in current form, according to Constitutional Society report

Despite the reform of the Human Rights Act considered a key manifesto pledge in 2019, progress has been slow and criticism of the replacement — a modern Bill of Rights — has been widespread. A new report The ‘Modern’ Bill of Rights Bill from Joanna George at The Constitution Society highlights the unworkability of the bill in its current form, suggesting that it would introduce a series of constitutional contradictions and confusions at a time when constitutional coherence is fragile.

Democracy Sector

Shock at resignation of Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister of Scotland

Following in the wake of Jacinda Ardern’s shock resignation last month, FM Nicola Sturgeon this week announced their decision to step down. Frances Scott, Director and Founder of 50:50 Parliament said Sturgeon’s departure ‘makes a bad situation worse’, remarking ‘It is sad to see these two female world leaders step down. They have been blazing a trail that others can follow.’

Notwestminster kicks off this weekend

Notwestminster is a free event for everyone who has something positive to say about local democracy and anyone who is up for the challenge of making it better. Whilst the fun begins this evening, the main event is this Saturday in Huddersfield. Grab your last minute tickets here!

Constitution Society to host event on the future of UK democracy

On Friday 24th of March, The Constitution Society will host an event in Putney, London, on the site of the famous 1647 Putney Debates, alongside academics and constitutional experts to discuss the crisis facing UK democracy. Panels throughout the day will focus on themes including devolution, electoral reform and the constitutional crisis. Tickets are free, but it is worth booking in advance for this one!

mySociety recruiting new Chair of Trustees, celebrate their 20th anniversary!

Myf Nixon and the team at mySociety are on the lookout for a new Chair of Trustees — they’re asking everyone to please spread the word to cast the net far and wide — see more details here. Meanwhile, last week saw mySociety turn 20! Read Louise Crow’s anniversary blog charting their journey since 2003. As TicTec Labs draws to a close, join the mySociety team for a special event to unpack the learnings and outputs from the 18 month programme.

Elect Her kickstart their candidate support programme Equip Her with range of new events and workshops

Equip Her is a four month programme of support for women in our community who are preparing to be candidates in upcoming elections, taking place in 2023 and 2024. From now until the local elections Elect Her are creating spaces for women to access free resources, advice and community — so if you, or someone you know, are putting themselves forward as a candidate this election, get in touch. But that’s not all, Elect Her are offering a range of new events from My Political Future, designed for women who want to become leaders in their community, but aren’t sure where to start — to the Disabled Women in Politics Network roundtable next week.

People’s Jury in Blackburn launch climate recommendations

Community members in Blackburn and Darwen met for 30 hours during September and December 2022 to debate the question; What do we need to do in our homes, in business and our local area to respond to the climate change crisis? The process was facilitated by Shared Future CIC with the group providing recommendations to the local council on how to address the issue. Later this year Shared Future will be hosting a citizen’s assembly in Wandsworth to discuss how to tackle air pollution, and in Bude they will be running community engagement programmes on the climate flooding threat.

Civic Power Fund is hiring for two new positions

Civic Power Fund is on the hunt for a Community Power Builder based in Greater Manchester who will lead their funding and organising across the region. They are also looking for an Operations Officer who can be based anywhere in the UK and will help streamline their admin and operations. The deadline for both roles is the 3rd of March.

The Politics Project flesh out General Election support

Following on from their 25th January General Election Strategy Day, Hattie Andrews and the team at The Politics Project have laid out their plan to support plans over the next year to prepare the GE. This involves support through convening and signposting, a monthly email round up of activities and opportunities, hosting online and physical meetups, developing a directory of people, organisations and projects — as well as a new shared hub for offers, needs and opportunities. If you’d like to know more, email Hattie.

Candid are reaching out to others working on election candidate datasets

Joe and the team at Candid are a new project working to build a more complete picture of election candidates. Find out more about them and get in touch.

Tech for Good Organisers host March 2023 Retreat

Are you involved in civic tech? Do you organise a tech for good project? Would you like to? Register for the Tech for Good Organisers 2023 Retreat this March 24th in London.

I Have A Voice running day of World Cafes’ and social action in Leeds and London, February 25th

Rebecca Deegan and the team at I Have A Voice are running two events, at the same time, in both Leeds and London — joined together via videolink, involving speakers Hilary Benn MP, Cllr Barry Anderson, Cllr Ria Patel and artivist Simone Yasmin. Find out more for Leeds and London.

Twitter kills off backend service causing issues for Democracy Club and others

The change means that services such as Democracy Club will no longer be able to monitor Twitter as easily for spotting such changes as councillors and elected representatives changing their Twitter handles over time.

MP Watch set to publish report on generational political change

MP Watch is a campaign working to build a network of constituency groups to hold MPs accountable on their net zero commitments, notable for their work around Steve Baker MP among others. The new report provides an analysis of the changing demographics of UK constituencies, including detailed information on the expected dates a range of constituency areas become ‘majority millennial’. The report sets the stage for their next phase of work, maximising young voter engagement in priority areas.

Women’s Equality Party are hiring for multiple positions

WEP are campaigning for a society in which there is equal representation in politics, business and everyday life. If you share that vision and want to get involved then check out some of these exciting news roles they’re hiring for; Campaigns Coordinator, Political Advisor, Finance and Membership Officer. Deadline for all three roles is February 20th.

Fito are providing resources and support to those building networks around social impact

Are you convening groups and networks around social change in the UK? Fito are a new project working to develop and support a network of networkers & convenors . Would you like to know more?

Massive increase in tactical voting Facebook Groups

Jon Morter and Josh Russell have reportedly overseen the growth of more than 200 local Facebook Groups focused on promoting tactical voting across the UK. Reach out to Jon for more info.

Join 50:50 in Parliament to celebrate International Women’s Day

This year’s APPG Women in Parliament event is being hosted by Maria Miller MP and 50:50. Following the success of previous years, Maria will host a panel of women talking openly about their experiences of standing for election and holding office, alongside senior guest speakers. The event is happening on the 1st of March, 5pm-7pm. Get in touch to find out more.

Constitution Society hiring Research Fellow

The Research Fellow will join The Constitution Society on a fixed-term 4-month contract and will research and write a paper on a contemporary UK constitutional issue of their choosing. The job is based in London and there is a salary of £2,000 pcm.

Power to Change is hiring a Democratic Ownership Manager

Power to Change is working to support greater community power and ownership across England through community business. The new Democratic Ownership Manager will work with partners who are campaigning for and delivering greater democratic ownership across the country. They are also looking for a Local and Regional Officer to join the policy and comms team. Both positions have a deadline of the 28th of Feb.

New Local and TPXimpact share findings from new community engagement project

The project is being organised by the Local Government Association (LGA) in partnership with New Local and TPXimpact to find and celebrate examples of innovative community engagement by councils with groups who are disadvantaged or underrepresented in local decision-making. A new blog from Polly Lord at New Local and Tom Chigbo from TPXimpact highlights some of the themes that emerged from a series of workshops they conducted as part of the wider LGA project.

Has the pandemic impacted political participation? The Practical Democracy Podcast investigates

The latest episode of the Practical Democracy Podcast takes a closer look at how the pandemic has impacted political engagement, discussing how the pandemic has impacted public trust in the government and other political behaviour.

Democratic Innovation & Reform

We’re Right Here responds to Gordon Brown’s report, reasserts need for Community Power Act

We’re Right Here welcomed Brown’s recent report, publishing a new briefing in response which sets out how Labour can implement a policy to support and build community power. WRH argue a Community Power Act will rebalance the scales of where power lies across the UK, establishing new community rights and bringing local people into decision-making. They are also looking for a Campaign Coordinator to join them on a 0.5 FTE contract to help build public support for the act. The deadline for the role is the 19th of February, apply now.

Parliamentary Digital Service working to make it easier for people to find and use parliamentary procedural data

Chris Caden, User Researcher at Parliamentary Digital Service, is currently leading on a project to better understand what researchers, journalists, community groups and members of the public need from parliamentary data. To this end, they’re planning research interviews over the next two months to understand what these different groups need from openly published parliamentary data and what their current frustrations are from accessing that data. If you’d like to help Chris and the PDS team, pop them an email.

Scottish Parliament’s Citizens’ Panel on Participation consultation ends

As part of the Scottish Parliament’s development of its capacity to deliver deliberative engagement over recent years, Holyrood’s Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee have been running an inquiry into public participation. As part of that process, a Citizens’ Panel on Participation was commissioned and has since published their report detailing 17 recommendations. An 8-week consultation ran until earlier this week, hosted on the Scottish Parliament’s Your Priorities platform. However, Researcher at Demos, Sophia Knight, still recommends checking out the portal which explores some of the participatory models of democracy in use across the Scottish parliament.

Integrity & Transparency

Equality and Human Rights Commission concludes monitoring of the Labour Party

The EHRC has now formally concluded their monitoring of the Labour Party which began in 2020 following accusations that anti-semitism was rife within the party. EHRC chief executive Marcial Boo said the EHRC were now ‘satisfied’ that Labour had ‘implemented the necessary actions to improve its complaints, recruitment, training and other procedures to the legal standards required’.

Big Brother Watch report reveals Government use of military brigade to monitor the public

A new report from Big Brother Watch reveals that UK government departments have been monitoring government critics online under the claim that they are tackling misinformation. The report includes findings with a whistleblower from the 77th brigade of the army claiming the government has been using the army to track citizens’ speech online, despite claiming the brigades were strictly directed overseas.

Elections

Jeremy Corbyn attacks decision to stop him from standing as Labour MP

Former Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn has said the decision from Keir Starmer to prevent them from standing as a Labour MP at the next general election is a ‘flagrant attack on the democratic rights of Islington North Labour Party members’. Corbyn, who has been an MP in the area for 40 years, said it was up to party members, not party leaders, to decide who should represent them.

Labour holds onto West Lancashire in byelection win

Labour has retained the seat of West Lancashire after Ashley Dalton won the local byelection on Thursday 9th of Feb. A 10% voter swing saw Dalton win a majority of 14,068 votes, with the Conservative candidate, Mike Prendergast, coming second with 5,742 votes. In their victory speech, Dalton said the win was a sign that the public has lost confidence in the Tory government.

Devolved Democracy & Local Government

Sturgeon’s resignation throws SNP independence strategy into disarray

SNP plans for a de-facto independence referendum appeared to be stalling this week after FM Nicola Sturgeon announced plans to step down as leader. Scottish Labour expect electoral benefits from the downfall of the highly popular former SNP leader. Check out this explainer from The Ferret on what happens in the near future now that Sturgeon has resigned.

Stormont election delayed by a year

As the ongoing stalemate continues, the UK Government is due to introduce legislation that will push the timetable for an election back to 18 January 2024.

Demos lambasts Treasury moves to restrict capital spending on Levelling Up programme

With the anniversary of the Levelling Up White Paper this month, the Treasury announced it is restricting the ability of the Dept for Levelling Up to make decisions on capital spending without prior Treasury agreement. Demos has criticised the move saying the introduction of more bureaucracy on devolution means the country is being pushed further away from the ambition of localising power.

Democracy & Media

Public Interest News Foundation identify need for a community organiser post for independent journalism

Joe Mitchell and the Public Interest News Foundation team are beginning an analysis of their recent survey responses from across the indie news publisher sector, and it’s becoming apparent the sector would benefit from a community organiser, says Joe. Things to look out for later this year from the indie media sector: this new community organiser post, another Independent News Forum (see what happened last October) and possibly a co-created PR campaign for indie news.

Anti-SLAAPs bill introduced to parliament to protect investigative journalists

Last month Conservative MP Bob Seely introduced a private members bill that would allow the courts in England and Wales to prevent wealthy figures from using SLAPPs to silence investigative journalists, campaigners and watchdogs. Seely said the new bill would stop ‘unethical’ British law firms from working on behalf of oligarchs and politicians who attempt to ‘spy, snoop, smear and sue’ their critics. The bill will put additional pressure on the government to make good on their promise made in July 2022 that they would introduce legislation to tackle the use of SLAPPs. So far the government has yet to put forward any draft legislation.

Lords add clause to Public Order Bill to protect journalists covering protests

A new clause has been added to the Public Order Bill by members of the House of Lords to ensure the police can’t prevent someone from observing or reporting on a protest. The clause was voted in with a 91 vote majority (283 to 192) and comes following the verdict from an independent review that the arrest of journalists at the Just Stop Oil protests in November 2022 may have constituted ‘unlawful interference’.

IMPRESS launch new standards code

IMPRESS has just launched a new standards code to meet the changing face of modern journalism. The new code has guidance on tackling misinformation in the media, discrimination in news reporting, the use of AI, child protection measures, and more.

HackedOff report celebrates a decade of change in the UK media

A new report from HackedOff, 10 Years of Press Freedom, looks at the changes across the UK media since the 2011 Leveson Report which stressed the need for the media to become more accountable and transparent. According to the report, 186 publications are now regulated by IMPRESS — 67% of those publications are local or hyper-local organisations which now serve communities where larger publishers have pulled out.

Funding Democracy

New Voter ID coalition funded by Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust for four months ahead of local elections

Under the Democracy Defence Coalition banner, Unlock Democracy, Fair Vote UK, Open Britain and Electoral Reform Society, have been awarded funding for a four month campaign to make the case for dropping voter ID, raising public awareness of voter ID requirements, as well as work to persuade local and central government to do more to make voters aware of the new requirements. Congrats!

Civic Power Fund Community Action Fund still open for one more week

The Community Action Fund has been launched to support grassroots campaigning and community organising in the UK, providing one-off grants between £2,500 and £20,000. All successful applicants will be offered support beyond funding, including the Civic Power Fund Governance Hub and optional, bespoke cohort and capacity building opportunities. Deadline is 26th February 2023.

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If you can’t make our fortnightly meetup, you can always drop in to the meetup document of the current fortnight and add to it by going to democracymeetup.org.uk.

See you next time, add to your calendar

James, Max, Louise and the UK Democracy Network team