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UK Democracy Bulletin, 7th October

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Fortnightly news, jobs, grants and gossip from the democracy sector, brought to you by James Moulding, Molly Hudson, Max Roche and Louise Dunmore. The UK Democracy Bulletin is a joint project of The Centre for Democracy and 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: hello@centrefordemocracy.org.uk

Highlights

  • Labour Party Conference back proportional representation
  • Experts in the Age of Instinct new report from Cast from Clay
  • Democracy Network organising new democracy conference
  • Public Notice Portal launches
  • Welsh Government kicks off comprehensive commission on the constitutional future of Wales

In case you missed it…

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Thanks to our contributors

Thanks to everyone who joined us last week for our Democracy Meetup. This week we were joined by Oliver Walkden — Young Citizens, Perry Walker — TalkShop, Katy Murray — Cast From Clay, Jessie Joe Jacobs — Democracy Network, Louise Dunmore — Democracy Network, Calum Green — Involve, Charlie Mansell — The Campaign Company, Alex Bulat — Migrant Democracy Project, Joe Mitchell — Public Interest News Foundation, Naomi Smith — Best for Britain, Bob Bater — Knowplexity Associates and Will Snell — Fairness Foundation.

Sign the Ecosystem Pledge

The Ecosystem Pledge is a statement of intent, now backed by 73 signatory organisations from across the democracy sector, including Involve, Unlock Democracy, mySociety and 50:50 Parliament. Together, we pledge:

We are individuals and organisations working to improve democracy in the UK. We acknowledge that there are many other organisations working towards the same goal. We believe that, if we want things to change, we need to start talking to each other more.

If you would like to add you and your organisation’s name to the list of signatories, please email pledge@centrefordemocracy.org.uk.

Upcoming Legislation

Online session to explore the Public Order Bill and implications for protest

Netpol and Garden Court Chambers are hosting an online event on October 11th to explore the upcoming Public Order Bill and its impact on the right to protest and civil liberties. The event will hear from a range of speakers including lawyers and campaigners and is free to attend.

Democracy Sector

Cast from Clay launches new report on impact of disinformation on research expertise

Democracy 2.0: Experts in the Age of Instinct explores how best policy experts — a discipline founded on reason and evidence — can continue to support democracies in this new age of misinformation and instinct where our information environment is under constant threat. Katy Murray, Insights and Relationship Lead at Cast from Clay, says they’re trying to get policy experts to recognise what they contribute to democracy and the risk of complacency.

Young Citizens running Magistrates’ Mock Trials, celebrating 5 years of Quality Mark

Working for an active citizenship that they argue should be an essential part of children and young people’s education, Young Citizens work with thousands of schools each year to create practical experiences of ‘citizenship in action’. Their next programme on legal education are a set of Magistrates’ Mock Trials — applications are still open. Young Citizens celebrates 5 years of the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development Quality Mark for schools.

Stone King LLP running refresher on election law for charities and issue campaigns, October 13th

The law firm Stone King LLP will bring together speakers from the Electoral Commission, NCVO and their own in-house expertise to discuss changes to electoral law for future elections. Register now for the event on October 13th.

Migrant Democracy Project gathers steam

Alex Bulat & Lara Parizotto have registered a new company, the Migrant Democracy Project — a new home for their current residence based voting rights campaigns for migrants in the UK, including the re-launch of their campaign Our Home Our Vote. Head over to their Twitter now and give them a follow and show your support!

Best for Britain pushing back on Henry VIII powers, hiring

Naomi Smith, CEO at Best for Britain, reports that their team is focusing on achieving a cross party joint approach to pushing back on the Henry VIII powers in the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill. Best for Britain are also hiring for a Communities Manager, and possibly a PA soon too.

TalkShop launching their Win-Win method

Having just completed training up the National Union of Students’ teams in how to shift their annual conference from motions, amendments and debates to a more dialogic, informal format, TalkShop will soon be launching their Win-Win method on November 2nd. Get in touch with Perry Walker to find out more.

Democracy Network organising new Democracy Conference

It’s all hush-hush at the moment, but word on the Zoom-grapevine is that Jessie Joe Jacobs and Louise Dumore at Democracy Network are planning a new Democracy Conference for 2023, exciting! They’re also meeting with democracy organisations related to regional devolution, is that your focus? — then get in touch!

Sortition Foundation examine citizen assembly recruitment practices

The Sortition Foundation recently completed an analysis of two recent citizens’ assemblies they recruited for to explore just how inclusive they were. The research stems from concern that recruiting to targets such as age or gender will omit some important social demographics. Their analysis noted that the pool of respondents tended to over-represent those with higher educational attainment suggesting a hybrid recruitment strategy is needed to overcome this selection bias. Check out the full report on intersectionality and recruitment.

Fairness Foundation launching Fairness Index, 19th October

The new Fairness Index from Fairness Foundation is an online resource that aims to collate and explain the key data about how fair British society is today. Join their launch webinar on 19th October to find out more. Will Snell and the team at Fairness Foundation specialise in supporting other organisations to talk about fairness — to that end they also publish a curated set of resources for partners and a weekly email.

FrameWorks UK — framing strategies to help mission driven campaigns to support change

Charlie Mansell at the Campaign Company notes the great work being done at FrameWorks UK and their potential in assisting other organisations in reframing debates over democracy. Check them out.

Directory of Social Change to host event on influencing policy and policymakers

Whether it’s Westminster, Whitehall or local authorities, Engage’s annual event on the 18th of October will take a broad look at the policy landscape and explore all aspects of how to influence policymakers.

Nesta publishes report ‘Democratic Innovation and Digital Participation’ by Oli Whittington

The report discusses the barriers faced by democratic innovators alongside the need for democratic innovations and digital participation tools to remove the barriers to create inclusive decision-making systems.

Knowplexity offer free online course on citizens’ assemblies

Knowplexity launched their GreenPath learning portal in July, which includes a free online course on citizens’ assemblies. They’re planning to include new courses covering basic income, electoral reform and Doughnut Economics.

Public Interest News Foundation welcomes Max Roche, fundraising

Joe Mitchell and the PINF team report that they’ve hired a new Researcher — none other than Centre for Democracy’s own Max Roche, who’ll be working with them a day work to lay the groundwork for next year’s PINF Index. In other news, they also report that their fundraising, possibly for a NewsMatch-style programme.

Demos are recruiting a Director of Policy and Impact

The Director of Policy and Impact will work closely with the senior leadership team at Demos and will lead the organisation’s policy work, helping to build funding routes to achieve it. The ideal candidate will be adept at identifying policy weaknesses and have a creative mindset on how to solve them. Deadlines for applications are w/c 7th Nov.

The Electoral Commission is hiring

The Electoral Commission is looking for a Senior Registration Advisor to work in their party registration team. Experience working in a regulatory environment is preferable and the deadline is this weekend! They are also on the hunt for a Monitoring Manager to lead the monitoring team and enhance the work of other teams in the regulation directorate. The closing date for this position is October 30th.

Forty democracy pioneers to take part in Climate Democracy Action program

Forty global policymakers and advocates with a vision of using participatory democracy to address the climate crisis have been selected to take part in the first Climate Democracy Action Programme. The individuals will receive training to help them deliver a climate-focussed participatory programme in their country of origin with two of the programmes eventually receiving a $20,000 implementation grant. Check out the full list of forty individuals that have been selected.

New UCL report on social and psychological impacts of COVID-19

The report, ‘Tracking the Psychological and Social Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic Across the UK Population’, by University College London provides an overview of the in-depth study which involved more than 70,000 participants over two years. The analysis includes population compliance levels with COVID-19 measures as well as barriers and facilitative elements that impacted on these numbers.

Democratic Reform

Major win for electoral reform campaigners as Labour Party delegates back Proportional Representation

The campaign to introduce proportional representation gained significant momentum during the Labour Conference after party delegates voted in favour of ditching the first past the post voting system. The vote was hailed by Laura Parker from Labour for a New Democracy, as ‘an historic moment’, and comes following a year in which a number of key unions including UNISON and UNITE pledged their support for electoral reform. Campaigners and other parties including the Greens are now calling on Starmer to listen to the democratic voice of delegates and include PR as a manifesto pledge ahead of the next election.

Proportional representation will not be in a Labour manifesto pledge, says Starmer

Despite the historic Labour Conference vote to back a switch to proportional representation, Starmer has said electoral reform will not be a manifesto pledge at the next election. Writing for the New Statesman, Neal Lawson, Director at Compass, suggested the opposition to electoral reform from the Labour leadership stems from a fear that PR would expose them to unwanted electoral competition and perhaps a view that long periods of no power are preferable to sharing power.

51% of the UK want electoral reform, according to long-running survey

Since 1983, the British Social Attitudes survey has asked the public whether they want to keep the current electoral system or if they want to reform it ‘to allow smaller political parties to get a fairer share of MPs’. Since it was first asked the question has been put to the public over 20 times, but this year is the first time the balance has tipped in favour of reform. 51% compared to 44% voted in favour of electoral reform — a divide that is even starker amongst Labour voters with 61% vs 34% saying they want reform.

Briefing paper released on legal issues surrounding Scottish Referendum

The House of Commons Library has released a briefing paper tracing the Scottish Government’s attempts to legislate for a referendum. The paper outlines the constitutional development of the United Kingdom itself before examining the recent legal and legislative context behind the push for an independence referendum.

New report: Reimagining Whitehall: an essay by Dr Simon Kaye

Think tank Reform kicked off the start of their ‘Reimagining Whitehall’ programme with the publication of their eponymous paper which offers a high-level examination of the issues they believe must be resolved in order to deliver excellence that is suitable for the government apparatus of the future.

Compass asks: Is the cost of living crisis a crisis of democracy?

If people can’t afford the bare necessities because our political system stifles policies for change, what does this say about our democracy? In the first of a new three month podcast series, Compass are joined by Founder of the Tax Justice Network, Richard Murphy, to look at the current economic crisis and how it intersects with a crisis of our democracy.

Integrity & Transparency

Government ‘mini budget’ breaks with norms of good government, according to the Institute for Government

Truss and Kwarteng bypassed normal standards of parliamentary scrutiny after their budget was debated for just two hours, says the Institute for Government. Referring to it as a ‘mini budget’ or ‘fiscal event’ meant they were able to circumvent the standard five-day period of parliamentary scrutiny in which colleagues would be able to critique and amend the upcoming economic agenda. Furthermore, Kwarteng announced the proposals without first consulting the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), fuelling concerns that Truss’s leadership will be marked by a shirking of independent advice.

The Court of Appeals rule that the human rights defence is no longer valid for demonstrators
The Court of Appeal ruled last week that defendants in future instances resembling the Colston Four will not be allowed to raise human rights defences. In future protest cases human rights defences will only be considered in situations where there is perceived low value damage, a ruling which sways the scales of justice ever further against core human rights.

News Media Association establishes new online public notice portal

The new Online Public Notices Portal, with funding from Google, supplements the existing physical public notice boards present across many towns and cities. This new online portal allows individuals and groups to view, comment on and share planned developments before decisions are made.

Ethics rules for the position of London Mayor must be strengthened, according to inquiry

An inquiry into the scandal around Boris Johnson and US businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri has suggested ethics rules for the position of London Mayor must be strengthened. The committee found that Johnson had opened himself up to “a perception of lack of due process and favouritism” in his dealings with Arcuri. The committee went on to suggest that London City Hall’s codes of conduct ought to specify clearly that public officials must declare personal relationships if public money is to go to that person.

Jacob Rees-Mogg comes under attack for abuse of governmental position

Jacob Rees-Mogg initially made headlines after handing a peerage and a job as a senior minister in Truss’s government to Dominic Johnson — a city businessman who co-founded Somerset Capital Management with Rees-Mogg and has donated over £250,000 to the Conservative Party. Rees-Mogg invited further criticism after an email leak to the Guardian exposed his attempts to bypass environmental and judicial scrutiny on upcoming fracking projects.

Unlock Democracy launch Take Action on Sleaze campaign

With trust in politicians at an all-time low, Unlock Democracy has launched a new campaign calling on the new Prime Minister to tackle sleaze, cronyism and rule-breaking. Amongst the campaign demands are calls for Truss to commit her government to obey international law, appoint an independent ethics advisor, and end cronyism in appointments to the House of Lords.

Climate activist receives compensation for unlawful arrest

Last year Extinction Rebellion activist Liam Geary Baulch was arrested outside Conservative Party Conference 2021 for holding a handmade sign reading ‘Priti Fascist’. Arrested for a ‘breach of the peace’, Liam later instructed ITN Solicitors to write to Greater Manchester Police to challenge the lawfulness of the arrest. Following this, GM Police have now provided Geary Baulch with compensation and legal costs following the unlawful arrest. Would you like to know more?

Elections

Sheffield University auto enrols students onto Electoral Register

Did you know that Sheffield University ranks #1 for outstanding student voter registration practices? The University of Sheffield employs a novel method to the widespread problem of low student enrolment — integrating voter registration into the University’s start of term processes, so when you receive your Student ID — you’re also automatically enrolled on the electoral register. They’ve even been cited in Parliament as an example of best practice in achieving high student voter reg figures.

Meloni’s electoral success in Italy signals strengthening of ‘illiberal democracy’ bloc

Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy Party won the Italian national election last month with 26% of the popular vote. Victor Orban, who describes his regime in Hungary as an ‘illiberal democracy’, was quick to praise Meloni along with Le Pen, who suggested the Italian people had ‘woken up’. Meloni’s win has spread fear that civil liberties in Italy will be rolled back whilst strengthening a growing continental opposition to EU liberal democracy.

​​Disillusioned Defectors report maps voters susceptible to populist rhetoric

In light of the recent electoral success of several European populist parties, More in Common has undertaken polling research and conducted focus groups across the UK to identify a group of voters that will likely be attracted to right-wing populist rhetoric. A new report, Disillusioned Defectors, analyses the historic party allegiance of this group and explores what this could mean for the prospects of both Labour and the Conservatives at the next general election.

Devolved Democracy & Local Government

Wales is having a national conversation on its constitutional future

The Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales has been established by the Welsh Government. The commission has two broad objectives, to consider and develop options for fundamental reform of the constitutional structures of the United Kingdom — and develop progressive principal options to strengthen Welsh democracy and deliver improvements for the people of Wales. They are running an expansive consultation, ending in December — would you like to know more? Listen to this podcast by the Centre for Constitutional Change on the Commission.

Elect Her Webinars through October

Throughout the month of October Elect Her are running six fantastic events including life as a community councillor, life as a councillor and life as an MSP.

2022 report on governance and scrutiny in local government is published

The Centre for Governance and Scrutiny surveys scrutiny officers, elected members and officers working in local government each year for their views on the effectiveness and impact of overview and scrutiny. Their 2022 annual report concludes that scrutiny is most effective when it’s properly resourced and supported by an executive that is open to challenge. The report also suggests local scrutiny could be improved in terms of approaches to risk, finance and oversight of commercial activity.

Centre on Constitutional Change animation examines impact of Brexit on Devolution

In the wake of Brexit, the UK and devolved governments have had to agree to replace some EU rules with UK rules. A new animation and infographic from the Centre on Constitutional Change take a closer look at that process and the relationship between Westminster and the devolved assemblies in the wake of Brexit. Both animation and infographic are part of a research project being developed by UK in a Changing Europe, entitled A Family of Nations? Brexit, Devolution and the Union.

Hansard Society Event: What does the Retained EU Law Bill mean for Parliament?

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill was introduced to Parliament on the 22nd of September and could have far-reaching impacts on the relationship between Government and Parliament. On the 12th of October, the Hansard Society will host an event with leading parliamentary and legal experts to explore the devolved powers contained within the bill and what it means for parliamentary scrutiny.

Localis release local engagement policy toolkit designed for public organisations and local councils

Localis publish a toolkit designed for local councils seeking to engage in genuine public engagement and work in partnership with residents and communities. The toolkit is based on lessons learned from Kensington and Chelsea Council, during their journey to make meaningful public engagement their standard practice.

Democracy & Media

New Culture Secretary to reconsider plans to privatise Channel Four

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, the new Culture Minister Michelle Donelan said, ‘we’re looking especially at the business case for the sale of Channel 4 and making sure we still agree with that decision.’ Their comments suggest the government could be considering a U-turn on the controversial plans, announced in April this year, to privatise the broadcaster due to concerns that public ownership was ‘holding it back in the face of a rapidly changing and competitive media landscape’.

openDemocracy is looking for a News Editor

The News Editor will have a strong interest in using journalism to support democratic debate and will help lead the news coverage at openDemocracy. Deadline for applications is 24th October.

New media outlet The Canary has become a workers’ co-op, cites former owners toxic practices

The left-leaning new media outlet that rose to prominence during Labour’s Corbyn-era has found itself amongst turbulent waters in recent months, with workers and journalists at the site forced to investigate their bosses ‘toxic’ practices and financial ‘irregularities’, resulting in them staging their own revolution and resolving to become a workers’ co-op.

Accredited photojournalist ‘manhandled’ out of Conservative Party Conference

A video has emerged of accredited press photographer Tolga Akmen being forcibly removed from the convention centre by security staff during this week’s Tory Party Conference. A Conservative party spokesperson said: ‘We are aware there was an incident earlier today where a photographer was removed by venue security staff. We believe there may have been a misunderstanding and have been in contact with the photographer.

And Finally…

One to watch: Poland’s first citizens assembly to discuss rising energy prices

Poland’s first citizens assembly will take place this month and across November to discuss the high cost of energy facing the country. 100 residents from across Poland will take part in the citizens assembly where they will be briefed by experts in social policy, energy and climate related fields before discussing possible solutions to the crisis.

The Centre for Democracy maintains a full database of events from across the democracy sector.

View the database here — Have we missed something? Add it here!

Active Job Listings across the Democracy Sector

View the full database of upcoming job listings here — have we missed any? Add them via this form.

Apply ASAP

Jobs with upcoming deadlines

Unsalaried job listings #ShowTheSalary

We’ve been experimenting with the format of this email and the accompanying meetup, if you have any feedback we’d be glad to hear it.

If you can’t make our weekly 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 Bulletin team