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UK Democracy Bulletin, April 2024

UK Democracy Network
17 min readApr 16, 2024

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Involve’s Ruth Hart crowned Mastermind Champion 2024 (Photo credit: BBC)

Issue #59 — April 2024

Monthly news, jobs, grants and gossip from across the democracy sector, brought to you by James Moulding 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: hello@democracynetwork.org.uk

Highlights

  • National Voter Registration Day dozens of organisations launch vote drive
  • Democracy Network launch Democracy Resource Hub
  • Meta limit political content on Instagram and Threads
  • British Youth Council shuts its doors permanently
  • Trudi Warner ‘right to acquit’ activist faces court this week
  • Public Interest News Foundation to run first ever Indy News Week

Important information

You can join the UK Democracy Network as a member here.

Join the UK Democracy Network’s WhatsApp Community here.

2024 Democracy Network Steering Group Elections are happening, use your vote — see more information.

Follow the Democracy Network on LinkedIn

Thanks to our contributors

Thanks to everyone who joined us last month for our Democracy Check-In. We were joined by Rebekah McCabe — Involve, Flynn Devine — Collective Intelligence Project, Oliver Walkden — Young Citizens, Joe Mitchell — Public Interest News Foundation, Lewis Westbury — Centre for Collective Intelligence, Peter Keeling — Democracy Club, MP Watch, Lyanne Nicholl — 50:50 Parliament, Rebecca Deegan — I Have A Voice, Katy Rubin — Legislative Theatre, Daniel Rockman — Campaign Lab, Gloria Dawson — Research for Action.

Featured Job Listings across the Democracy Sector

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

Apply ASAP

Jobs with upcoming deadlines

No salary listed (#ShowTheSalary)

Democracy Sector

Democracy Network launch new Democracy Resource Hub

This month the Democracy Network launched the new Democracy Resource Hub featuring the Democracy Map — an 800+ directory of democracy organisations and projects across the UK, new Democracy Jobs and Democracy Funding boards, as well as a home for the network’s webinars, guides and free training videos/resources. Missed the launch? Watch the deep dive into the Resource Hub on YouTube. Check out the Democracy Resource Hub now — find your organisation, share your jobs and explore the new funding lists. Have we got something wrong, got anything to add or contribute? Let us know via the Map or via hello@democracynetwork.org.uk

Democracy Network to hold annual Steering Group election — vote now

The Democracy Network’s Steering Group elections are running until tomorrow Weds 17th April 9am — the Steering Group is the elected board of the Democracy Network and works to guide, develop plans and strategy for the Network and helps support this community in myriad ways. Find out more and use your vote!

Upcoming Democracy Network events & connection opportunities across the democracy community:

  • AI & Democracy Webinar Series — Full Fact: Trust And Truth In The Age Of AI, 25th April (Zoom) — Register now
  • Democracy Coworking London (Demos), 26th April — Register now
  • Luncthtime Briefing: Open Elections with Caitlin Milazzo (Zoom), 30th April — Register now
  • Democracy Drinks London (Mabel’s Tavern), 30th April — Register now
  • Election Tech Meetup (London), 7th May — Register now
  • Democracy Offers & Needs (Zoom), 8th May — Register now
  • Introducing the Local Intelligence Hub with mySociety, 9th May — Register now
  • Democracy Network Community Resource Map-A-Thon, 15th May — Register now
  • mySociety’s TICTeC Conference, 12–13th June, Register now

Today is National Voter Registration Day!
Coordinated by My Life My Say, National Voter Registration Day (NVRD) is an annual collective effort to ensure every eligible individual is registered to vote. NVRD is officially recognised by all major UK political parties too — get involved now, contact Dan Lawes at My Life My Say to find out more.

British Youth Council closes down permanently
After more than 75 years of championing the voices of young people, the British Youth Council (BYC) has decided to permanently close down. In their press release, Zara Khan, Chair of the BYC, suggests ongoing financial challenges as the reason for the decision. The news has come as a shock to both those among the democracy sector who have been working closely with the BYC across its many programmes, and for generations of those who had invested much of their time in the youth voice movement through the British Youth Council.

All-Island Better Democracy Network launches in Belfast
The All-Island Better Democracy Network launched last month as part of the Imagine! Belfast Festival. The new network is a community of individuals and civil society organisations working to build a healthier democracy, more active citizenship and stronger civic voice across the island of Ireland. The Better Democracy network is a project of Involve and has been made possible by a grant from St Stephens’ Green Trust.

Collaborative Democracy Network launches
The Collaborative Democracy Network is a new network created by Demos. Launched last month, it is a new space for politicians, policymakers and civil society to come together to discuss innovations that put people at the heart of policy making. Missed the launch event? Watch it now on Youtube.

I Have A Voice open applications for this year’s Training and Internship Scheme
The scheme run by I Have A Voice is aimed at those between 16–25 years looking to learn about careers in policy research, public affairs and communications. Over the last two years they’ve had more than 35 trainees, with over 18 now permanently employed (13 are still in education). The training is completely free and includes two weeks of on the job training in different offices across London, before being invited for one of several paid hosted internships. The deadline to apply is the 26th April — share the application form.

More than 12 organisations now signed up to the National Campaign for Proportional Representation
The National Campaign for PR is gearing up, they’re currently interviewing for their two new positions — Campaign Convenor & Campaign Coordinator — to power the campaign over the months ahead. The campaign is now more than 12-organisations strong, including Compass, Electoral Reform Society, Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform, Lib Dems for Electoral Reform and Make Votes Matter, among others.

Newspeak House open for Fellowship applications
Newspeak House, the London College of Political Technology, is a residential college in East London. Participants spend a year immersed in civic communities of practice with the opportunity to meet thousands of people and participate in a wide range of in-person events. The programme is designed to support mid-career technologists to develop a holistic understanding of the civic landscape in the UK, in order to found groundbreaking new projects or seek strategic positions in key institutions — Apply now.

Collective Intelligence Project launch new Roadmap to Democratic AI report
Flynn Devine of The Collective Intelligence Project, reports that their new publication ‘A Roadmap to Democratic AI’ lays out a framing, plan and recommended actions for those interested in ‘democratising’ AI’ with the aim of generating shared understanding of priorities for efforts in 2024.

mySociety launch Local Intelligence Hub

Launched in partnership with The Climate Coalition, the new mySociety Local Intelligence Hub is designed to support people and organisations campaigning around climate and nature with the information they need to focus their campaigns on the areas that can have the greatest impact. Check it out now and read the supporting blog.

Oli Whittington developing participatory process to determine democratic campaigning priorities
Oli Whittington, Strategic Design Director at Shift Design, is busily interviewing people across the democracy sector at the moment regarding their new project proposal, to run a participatory assembly process with UK democracy organisations to develop a shared understanding and agreement on substantive democratic reforms — get in touch with Oli to discuss their ideas in more detail.

Unlock Democracy and Compass publish new report on devolution

Power to the People: the route to english devolution charts the course for a radical approach for radical devolution. The report assesses five key proposals that could inspire and guide an incoming government to act in this area as part of a wider movement towards a new 21st century democratic settlement — Read the report here.

mySociety note a massive drop in the number of All Party Parliamentary Groups
Over the past month there has been a 39% decrease in the number of APPGs, from 722 to just 444. In their latest blog Julia Cushion at mySociety details why this has happened, namely due to rules changes brought in on 31st March 2024 that required APPGs show increased financial reporting, ban APPG funding from foreign governments, require increased reporting and changes to the composition of the groups. Read Julia’s blog to find out more or dig into the data.

Shared Future CIC & Katy Rubin to run day of participatory democracy workshops at Sheffield Festival of Debate
Katy Rubin and the Shared Future CIC team are presenting a day of fun and workshops at the Festival of Debate in Sheffield on Saturday 25th May, from 1030. They’ll be running both a Legislative Theatre workshop and the City of Empavilla game on Participatory Budgeting — Find out more.

Voice for Change England hosting online panel discussion on cost living crisis and the local elections
The Voice for Change panel discussion on the 25th April aims to focus on the intersection of the cost of living crisis and the local elections this May, how the crisis is affecting communities, vulnerable groups and how it is exacerbating other social problems. Register now.

New report launch on technological capability of UK trade unions, May 8th
Organise Lab are launching their new report on the levels of digital training and ability across the UK trade union sector. The report is based on more than 100 interviews with shop stewards, health & safety reps and industrial representatives across a range of unions and sectors. The launch panel event will include contributions from GMB, Campaign Lab and Newspeak House — sign up now, and receive the report when it launches here.

The Khan Review recommends deliberative democracy methods
The new review by Dame Sarah Khan into social cohesion and resilience recommends ‘local authorities should consider adopting deliberate democracy models to help encourage greater citizen participation and engagement in the democratic system. This includes the setting up of a local cohesion and democracy forums or citizens assembly to support these objectives’.

Elections

Happy Statement of Persons Nominated (SoPN) Day to all those who celebrate

Democracy Club ready for the May elections, hosting hustings event listings

Each year, Democracy Club’s amazing volunteer community collates thousands of nomination papers (Statement of Persons Nominated) published on council websites, which are then manually added to the Democracy Club database in an annual effort known as SoPN Day, this year DC volunteers uploaded more than 2000 ballots. This year 10,662 candidates are standing for election across 2,015 individual ballots in England and Wales on 2 May, including principal councillors, mayors, Police and Crime Commissioners, London Assembly Members, and one MP. See the full election briefing here. Democracy Club are also building a list of hustings events across the country, add any you know here.

Common Knowledge launch new Mapped tool for organisers

The organising platform developed by Common Knowledge allows campaigners and organisers to pull in data from their various databases and plot their people and supporters on a UK map, overlay rich information layers from constituency boundaries, past election results, missed rental payment data, poverty distribution data — and even, with agreement. Promising stuff — whether you’re a canvasser, campaign strategist or fundraiser — try it now.

House of Commons Library looking for feedback on new election results pages

The House of Commons Library team are looking for feedback on their new election results information and data site. You read more about the development and roadmap of the pages here.

Operation Black Vote developing Black Manifesto, convening faith groups ahead of election
Operation Black Vote (OBV) and Black Equity Organisation, supported by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, are developing the UK’s first Black Manifesto for the upcoming General Election. OBV also recently met with the National Church Leaders Forum and Muslim Council of Britain with the aim of organising large scale hustings ahead of an autumn election and the development of a multi-faith manifesto.

Demos’ new report highlights the possibility of gendered election disinformation
In their new report Generative AI: the new frontier for gendered disinformation?, Ellen Judson focuses on the spectre of gendered misinformation, a new form of online violence weaponising gendered stereotypes to abuse, demonise and undermine people in public life, with a disproportionate targeting of Black, LGBT+ and other minoritised women — Read the new report now.

Campaign Lab prepares new hacknights for the May elections
The London-based community of progressive political technologists and electoral innovators are planning their next pre-election hacknight for April 22nd and post-election follow up event ‘Let’s Get Local’ here. They’re also running a training session to help people lobby politicians effectively — get in touch with Daniel Rockman to find out more.

Young Citizens’ create new voter resources aimed at 18–24 year olds
The new Young Citizens’ resources offer an introduction to voting, elections, laws, taxes and many more topics, including interactive resources such as Mock Parliament and Be Your Own Councillor. Oliver Walkden at Young Citizens also highlights that they are seeking volunteers from the legal sector to deliver The Big Legal Lesson in local schools. Email Oliver to find out more.

Runnymede Trust launch new report on immigration and racism ahead of the General Election

In their new report Creating a crisis: Immigration, racism and the 2024 General Election for the Runnymede Trust, Aurelien Mondon and Aaron Winter, show how the mainstreaming of far-right ideas and narratives by major UK political parties is predicated on the exclusion of people of colour, and is eroding public confidence in the political system and harming UK democracy.

50:50 Parliament to run How To Get Involved in the Election events

Lyanna Nicholls, CEO of 50:50 Parliament is running a new session on 22nd April for getting involved in the upcoming elections as a volunteer, even if you’re not standing. The event will focus on sharing knowledge on what women can do in the run up to the election to support their Party and gather valuable experience and networks should they be thinking of standing in the future. Interesting? Email the 50:50 Parliament team for more information.

Conservative council candidates seemingly invalidate themselves for election

Thirteen prospective Conservative candidates are no longer due to contest the elections at Castle Point Borough Council due to admin errors. It is understood that an old nomination form may have been used for the candidates’ applications.

Election Tech Handbook gears up for a General Election

The 2024 Election Tech Handbook launched last month. Back in 2019 the Handbook collected hundreds of data sources and projects, providing a key resource and signpost for election tech projects to scale, collaborate and reach a broader audience. The 2024 project has been funded by JRRT last to build upon previous successes of the project, improve the provision of and discoverability of new election tech tools, data and digital volunteers throughout the election period — and it’s growing to encompass all manner of digital projects and websites working in and around GE2024. Check it out now — Subscribe to their newsletter, join the ETH WhatsApp, attend their upcoming post-local election meetup and bookmark the Election Tech Handbook in your web browser.

Funding Democracy

Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust recruiting Interim Chief Exec & new committee members

The Trust are recruiting and co opting several new roles including for their Chief Exec (on a rolling deadline) and for four positions on their Power & Accountability Committee (deadline 9th May) — Apply now.

Help us populate our sector funding list

The Democracy Network has launched a new Resource Hub (above) including a new list of democracy funders in the UK. Take a look at the new funder list and see if there’s any grants that match your needs — Please do review the directory to improve this resource for everyone, and let us know if we have missed anything, please report any errors via hello@democracynetwork.org.uk

Join the new Democracy Funding group on WhatsApp

At this year’s Democracy Network Conference several sessions were held around the big question of funding democracy organisations and initiatives. Following this a group has convened around exploring various avenues to boost both the levels of funding available within the sector as a whole and on ways to more closely integrate and pool resources, for example back office functions. Join the WhatsApp Group or message Jessie Joe Jacobs to get involved.

Resources for Research for Action’s Citizen Auditors network

Research for Action secure long term funding, developing their citizen auditors network

Gloria Dawson and the team at Research for Action have secured long term funding for their worker co-op for three years, congratulations! As a result of this, they now have improved resources to keep growing and supporting their network of citizen auditors. This nascent network of citizen auditors is made up of local people who work to hold local government to account, journalists, civil society organisations and members of the public — Email the team for more information.

Integrity and Transparency

‘Right to acquit’ defendant Trudi Warner facing court this week

Campaigner and Quaker Trudi Warner is to face contempt proceedings in court this week for allegedly holding placards notifying jurors of their ability and ‘right to acquit’ defenders based on their conscience, outside a trial of Insulate Britain protesters last March. The charge against the 68-year old holds a maximum sentence of two years imprisonment. Leading barristers have said ‘she appears to be simply stating the law’, whilst Defend Our Juries add this is a ‘united front from the public’ and presents the Solicitor General, the police and the courts ‘with a dilemma’. The ancient right of juries to rule according to their convictions, established during the trial of two Quaker preachers in 1670, is under threat, the Quakers say.

Trudi Warner’s lawyers also wrote: ‘If you have the time we would encourage you to come down to the Royal Courts of Justice on Thursday morning (18th April) to hear the case and support Trudi. If that isn’t possible please look for ‘defend our juries’ on social media and; like, comment and repost our messages. Help us expose this deeply worrying case and protect the right to a fair trial.’

Raphael Schlemback launches their new book on Spycops

Spycops: Secrets and Disclosure in the Undercover Policing Inquiry by Dr Raphael Schlemback, Principal Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Brighton, is the first academic analysis of the activists experiences and their attempts to find answers and accountability through the Undercover Policing Inquiry. Register for the book launch at Leeds Beckett University on the 13th May as part of the Social Movements and Activism symposium.

Liberty publish new guidance and analysis on Prevent

With the recent widening of the definition of extremism by the UK Government last month, there are fresh concerns that these changes have the potential to further stifle and suppress legitimate political expression, particularly amongst marginalised communities such as Muslims and Palestinian groups. The new Liberty advice provides information on what happens if you are referred to prevent and what are our rights under the new Prevent definitions. Prevent has long been a concern of civil rights groups in the UK with organisations such as Liberty and Amnesty claiming Prevent threatens the established rights of British citizens under the Equality Act 2010, data protection laws, and our rights protected under the Human Rights Act 1998.

MP Watch experiment with citizen-led focus groups

In a bid to learn more about how their messaging and campaign lands with the public, the team at MP Watch have been working with local focus groups based around particular interests to help refine their approach and decide where to focus their energies. Their first group was with ‘soft Conservatives’ in NE Somerset, the next will be with women-focused groups in High Wycombe, followed by a third group of people from Pakistani backgrounds. So far they report success and that the groups like their approach.

Democracy & Media

Public Interest News Foundation coordinating world’s first Indie News Week this June

The inaugural week long event from 3–9th June will be the world’s first, Joe Mitchell, Deputy Director at the Public Interest News Foundation, reports. Under the banner of No News is Bad News, Indie News Week will comprise an online, print and in-person rollout with community events run by independent and independent local news outlets up and down the UK. The campaign will give communities an opportunity to meet their local journalists and find out more about who’s behind their local indie outlet and what goes into accurately and fairly covering the lives of their fellow residents. Sign up for Indie News Week… oh, and their annual gathering of indy news publishers — the Independent News Forum is back this October, stay tuned for more!

Meta moves to cease promotion of political content across their platforms

Tama Leaver, Professor of Internet Studies at Curtin University, highlights a set of sweeping changes to the way Meta platforms both define and recommend political content on their feeds. The changes will mean Instagram, Threads and possibly Facebook users will cease to see any political content on their feeds, relegating the ability to see news/political content as an opt-in feature. The change signals Meta’s retreat from politics but also news more generally is likely to both have a chilling effect on political discourse on the platforms and challenges any sense that these platforms are good for democracy at all, Tama writes.

Games Transformed is back for 2024

The one day festival brings together game developers, trade unionists, activists, campaigners and more to explore the intersection of games and progressive politics — register now for the June 22nd London event.

Doc Society to launch new Democracy Story Unit

The Doc Society works to support documentary film makers and empower them to make great films to tell the tales of our age. With the success of their Climate Story Unit, the new Democracy Story Unit will work to develop, empower and work with documentarists specifically around the issue of democracy — stay tuned for more.

New journalism schools sets out to improve diversity in UK journalism

The school, based in Beckenham, south London, will teach children about news reporting, video editing and illustration. According to the Sutton Trust, 80% of editors went to private school; only 11% of journalists are from working-class backgrounds, and only 0.2% of journalists are Black — this new school aims to change that.

And Finally…

Involve’s Ruth Hart crowned 2024 Mastermind Champion

Ruth Hart, Engagement Lead at Involve, won the 2024 edition of Mastermind! This was the first time she’d ever been on TV and scored a perfect 15/15 in her specialist subject, the artist Francis Bacon. You can watch Ruth’s big win on BBC iPlayer now — congratulations Ruth!

See you next time, add to your calendar

James, Max and the UK Democracy Network team

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UK Democracy Network

Written by UK Democracy Network

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