Your Party

Perfect politics

Loads of interesting political stuff via Perfect.co.uk recently. Just a sample:
Conservatives to modernise with online election focus (via this). Meanwhile Labour to do the same (via that - the comments worth following too).

Can non-US nationals contribute to US campaigns? Loads of links here.

And Perfect's Robin Grant is going to put himself forward for ITV's new Vote For Me! show. Good luck, and he should come work with us too. (And this from RichardHod: "Yet is shining under in the simulated world of modern media the best qualifying criterion we need for our next generation of politicians?")

Politics links

Saving Democracy from the Information Age: Non-skeptical but negative on edemocracy.

A US national budget simulation game.

Moveon.org founder will be directing John Kerry's net campaigning efforts.

Electronic voting source code released: VoteHere, US company that makes software for electronic voting machines, has taken the unprecedented decision to make public all its proprietary computer code.

Deliberative democracy vs Online dialogue (surprising that people see these in opposition; clearly both are required).

YP on TV?

Dan Thompson may be on BBC1's Politics Show on Sunday 21st March. He says:

if a major news/political event occurs then this could change but, on the assumption that it goes ahead, I'd like to get views on the proposed topic of debate which is voter apathy. We've done quite a lot of research on this and related matters but I'd like to get everyone's views before the program - why is there apathy? is it apathy or disillusionment? how can it be addressed?

The YPP list has started making some good comments on this, but you can't read them unless you join it (well, yes, that's a structural flaw I can only blame myself for), so here I am, brazenly and party-servingly, abstracting the discussion:

... The trend of ideological convergence between the major parties (as they compete for the median voter) is potentially an important factor in voter apathy...

... I would say that it is definitely 'disillusionment' - everyone I speak to about politics have quite strong views this way or that but the common denominator is that they feel that their vote at the elections doesn’t count for anything...

... People sometimes don't believe they can make any difference during the election - so don't vote, but they also have to accept part of the responsibility of their decision and that they have, in part, allowed this world situation to occur (whether you regard it as good or bad)...

... To get people to vote in these elections we need not only to persuade them that it makes a difference who wins, but also that they are voting for a body that has an impact on their lives...

... People in general are not 'apathetic' they simply just don’t have the opportunity to take part. Raise any debate within any UK community e.g. fox hunting, the Euro, the Budget, Iraq and you will have a plethora of different views and often have a heated discussion on your hands. No, there certainly isn’t any apathy towards politics in this country just apathy to the Ballot box...

Electoral Commission research seems to bear this out, saying that

the main obstacle to mobilising the electorate to participate in 2004 will be the deep-rooted and wisdespread scepticism about the impact of voting per se. Even at the general election - in almost everyone's eyes the most important electoral contest - the sense that the vote is a functioning democratic 'lever' appears almost absent.

Any comments for Dan? Pop them in the form below, or join the YPP list.

Downing Street Says

Downing Street Says is an interesting new transparency/accountability-of-the-gov project from a bunch of people, including the Public Whip, BBCi and MySociety folk. Looks genuinely useful, and well done to them.

Websites on Europe

From DavidH comes a great list of websites from/on/about Europe.

The European Parliament website. Also:

• the EP's english language home page
• the EP's public hearings
• the political groups in the EP (eg: Labour MEPs are affiliated with the Group of the Party of European Socialists [the PSE], etc.)

The Official portal of the EU. Also:

• the EU's latest news
• The Budget of the EU - a comprehensive description of EU budget: inputs/outputs and budgetary expenditure
• Official Journal publications
• Rapid database: search for EU institution press releases
• Midday express: daily press-releases from the EU institutions

Irish Presidency website

Think tanks and journals with articles on the EU:

• Centre for European Policy Studies
• European Policy Centre
• European Integration online Papers - has academic articles
• EU business online
• European Voice - EU news, printed newspaper available)
• EurActive.com - magazine on the EU with latest press releases and policy sections

The Kangaroo Group

EU funding opportunities

European training Institute - with articles and training on the EU

OEIL: European legislation tracking database

European Research papers archive - mostly academic articles

Institute for Security Studies - on EU defense and security policy and challenges

E-democracy at ConCon UK conference

ConCon UK was an ad-hoc UK revisit of Etech/ConCon, two US technology conferences earlier in Feb 2004. Unfortunately I arrived after the e-democracy bit, but here are the talks:

• Lee Bryant (of Headshift) gave an overview of the presentations at Etech's 'digital democracy teach-in'.
• And Tom Steinberg (of MySociety) dug in to the Howard Dean campaign to find out what went wrong, and what lessons we might learn - which is probably directly relevant for YP.

MPs and blogging

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for e-Democracy is gathering information after their first public session (27 Jan 2004), on MPs and blogging. It was like being at a club: most seemed to know each other well. Talking: MPs Watson, Allan and Soley; Crabtree; Benn. It has been described comprehensively and entertainingly elsewhere. The main thrusts seemed to be:

• MPs think communicating with real people is important
• real people like MPs blogging because it feels honest and open, and it re-engages them somewhat. (Not mentioned: it also make people realise that MPs are human, and have interesting and real characters, something that spin-controlled soundbite TV tends to dilute)
• that MPs like to get feedback and learn good things when they do
• the media are evil, and blogging can help cut across that
• most MPs don't blog because they don't get it, are too busy, or are concerned that they'll reach an audience that isn't their constituency

Web as the voter's weapon

Robbie Hudson's Web as the voters' weapon in the (UK) Sunday Times, 25 Jan 2004, looks at the the web and politics in the States (Dean, MoveOn, MeetUp, Iowa, etc) and the UK (FaxYourMP, Public Whip, Your Party, etc), and concludes that e-democracy is here to stay, but takes a fairly neutral view on it. Their sidebar has a good list of political sites. Choice quote: Richard Allan, MP: "Democracy is happening on the internet — the question is whether we want to engage with it practically or have it bite us on the backside."

And some seemingly skeptical assertions on e-democracy noted elsewhere, which will need to be thought about: iSociety's Will Davies: "constitutional democracy is representative, whereas social software (and its ilk) is only presentative". MySociety's Tom Steinberg: "There is an inverse correlation between the passion felt for a policy issue and the ability of direct democratic tools to deal with it".

Various ePolitics news and links

From the think tanks: Adam Smith Inst wants to see "People before politics" as a fix for NHS healthcare. Still on the public sector, Demos (and former health secretary Alan Milburn) ask: Are you local? - arguing for "demand-led" rather than one-size-fits-all devolution.

The Electoral Reform Society suggests that first-past-the-post could give Burnley council to the BNP. (And here's the ERS's summaries of single-member, multi-member, and mixed voting systems. Nb their own preference for the single transferable vote.)

Other things: BBC Wales' parliamentary correspondent has an online diary. The iSociety's Will Davies on Infrastructural Liberalism. Joseph Beuys (the artist) and direct democracy [via Aharon, by email]. For technical readers: eEurope Action Plan 2005 first-drafts its European Interoperability Framework for delivery pan-European e-gov services.

Communicating directly: Daniel Finkelstein, ex-research director of the Tory party, asked in The Times yesterday Why should broadcasts be restricted to political parties?

I think people should be able to communicate directly with voters in the most effective way possible. And why should that right be restricted to political parties? What about the anti-war movement? Or those people who want to bring back capital punishment?

The political debate in this country is being crippled by a fear of freedom. It’s time to remove the shackles.

Interesting.

Public Whipping Europe

Europarliament.net tracks MEP attendance in the European parliament. Finland and BeNeLux get a gold star; UK, Portugal, France and Italy don't. [via the Public Whip, its UK equivalent]

And: The Stationery Office-hosted Early Day Motions site records those notices of motions given by MPs that aren't expected to be debated in the UK parliament.