Meg's expertise in all things democracy was unparalleled. She will be a very hard act to follow, but Alan is ideally placed to pick up the baton.

📣 Getting the Representation of the People Bill Right: Preventing Disinformation in UK Elections 📣

Thank you to everyone who joined our event in Parliament last night!

💬 Featuring a cross-party panel of MPs alongside @reformpoliticalads.bsky.social and @fullfact.org.

Nigel Farage Has Personally Accepted £675,000 from Foreign Sources Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has accepted more than half a million pounds from foreign companies, governments, and donors while serving as an MP, DeSmog can reveal. Since July 2024, when he was…

When MPs take money from foreign governments or aligned groups, the public is bound to ask - whose interests are you serving?

The public deserves to know exactly what’s happened. That's why we need the release of all the ‘Mandelson files’ without further delay.

The Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards must also launch an urgent investigation.

Add your name to our letter to the Prime Minister 👇
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The public deserves to know exactly what’s happened. That's why we need the release of all the ‘Mandelson files’ without further delay.

The Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards must also launch an urgent investigation.

Add your name to our letter to the Prime Minister 👇
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Register to vote by April 20th to have your say in the May elections.

It's simple and only takes 5 minutes.

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“We do have to maintain a bedrock of freedom of speech and of peaceful protest... Otherwise, you don’t have democracy, you’ve locked it up.”

Baroness Hale says it plainly.

Yet just this week, MPs approved more draconian anti-protest measures.

When dissent is suppressed, so is democracy itself.

Which raises an awkward question for opponents of votes at 16:

If votes for 18-year olds once sounded dangerously radical…

How confident should they be that their eerily familiar objections will age any better this time?

Fast forward to today:

❌️ Democracy did not collapse
❌️ Governments still change hands
❌️ The electorate somehow survived the existence of… teenagers

In fact, 'votes at 18' became so normal that no one now argues, 'actually, let’s go back to 21.'

It was also argued that lowering the voting age was a cynical piece of political gerrymandering.

And yet a decade later 18-24-year olds split slightly in favour of Thatcher (42% to 41%).

Another opponent of lowering the voting age to 18 claimed:

"I am sure that a large number of youngsters would not vote even if the voting age were reduced to 18."

"[T]o be informed about civic matters is quite different from bringing a mature judgment to political issues and it is that difference which is giving me some trouble. Knowledge is one thing; maturity of judgment is another."

"They dislike coming within the voting age range, because of the pressure that would be put on them through national campaigns, families and all the other means that are used at election time to induce people to vote. They want to avoid those pressures."

"There is no public demand by young people for a reduction of the voting age to 18 and there is strong evidence to show that they would rather not have this reduction."

On this day in 1969, the voting age was lowered to 18.

When MPs were debating the draft law, a number expressed serious concern it might… break democracy 🤨

Plus ça change... 🥱

Some 'greatest hits' from 1969 🧵

Did Keir Starmer knowingly mislead Parliament on Mandelson's appointment? — Unlock Democracy Did Keir Starmer knowingly mislead Parliament on Mandelson's appointment? The Epstein and Mandelson scandal rears its head again.

Can we really believe no one in No. 10 knew what went on in such a high-profile appointment? And that 7 months after the Mandelson scandal broke, still no one knew?

We can guess what Opposition leader Keir Starmer would have said had Prime Minister Johnson told a story like this.

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The issue here is that, while Starmer was (rightly) forceful in criticising the appointment of Lebedev, calling for an investigation, Starmer’s government - by allowing Mandelson’s appointment despite the fact he failed security vetting - has not lived up to his rhetoric.

Back in March, the Independent Adviser Laurie Magnus wrote that based on the available information, "the relevant process for a political appointee was followed."

In light of today's revelation, Magnus must now open an investigation to make sure that due process was indeed followed.
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Keir Starmer Calls For Intelligence and Security Committee Investigation Into Lebedev Peerage The Labour leader Keir Starmer has called for Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee to look into the decision to award the Russian busin...

It’s striking that Keir Starmer once argued that Boris Johnson’s decision to award Lord Lebedev a peerage – despite vetting concerns – went ‘to the heart of national security’.

At the very least, in this case, Starmer’s government has not practised what he, its leader, preached.

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The government must publish the full paper trail – including all communications within & between the FCDO & No. 10 pertaining to Mandelson’s appointment – so the public can see who knew about the security vetting, who overrode its recommendation, and why.

Full transparency is now non-negotiable.

Revealed: Mandelson failed vetting but Foreign Office overruled decision Guardian investigation uncovers decision by UK security officials to deny clearance before Mandelson took up role as US ambassador

Anyone who fails security vetting should be automatically ineligible for appointment to a public position, no matter the political embarrassment.

If that wasn’t self-evident before (it was), it’s inescapable now.

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Reform or Plaid? Whichever way Welsh voters go, the country will be utterly transformed | Will Hayward Each party has its own version of nationalism to offer voters in May’s Senedd election: closer ties to England or more independence for Wales, says Guardian columnist Will Hayward

The full article is here - it's a great read, and neatly encapsulates the fundamental distinction between proportional and majoritarian voting systems: the former try to ensure the share of votes cast for each party is accurately reflected in the election result, the latter do not 👇
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In Wales, a proportional voting system - however flawed - will better represent the diversity of views among voters.

Councils in England, elected under First Past the Post, could bear very little resemblance to the way residents actually voted.

Credit: @willhaycardiff.bsky.social in The Guardian.

British voters are rejecting the traditional two-party system, but the voting system hasn’t caught up.

If YouGov's latest poll is anything to go by, May's council elections in England will see some wildly chaotic results.

Time for a proportional system that can accurately reflect how people vote.

Rycroft: "Foreign interference in our politics is real and persistent" The Government has an incredible opportunity with the Representation of the People Bill to kick big money out of our politics and protect our democracy from foreign interference.

“Foreign interference in our politics is real and persistent."

"If government does not act swiftly to gear up to counter these threats, there is a real risk they will run away from us."

Rycroft has made his recommendations. The government must now commit to implement them - all of them.

Back our campaign The Government has an enormous opportunity to kick big money donations out of our politics. Please sign our letter.

With the Representation of the People Bill going through Parliament, the Government has a huge opportunity to kick big money donations, and the influence they buy, out of our politics.

Will they take it?

Please add your name to our letter calling for a donations cap on all donors 👇
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Govt minister, Steve Reed, warned last month that donations from Brits overseas could be “so huge, it could change the terms of the political debate.”

But if that's the case for Brits abroad, why not for everyone?

Why should anyone be able to spend millions of pounds to change the terms of debate?

Former Prime Minister, John Major, has called for a political donations cap.

He recognises that allowing mega-rich individuals to make unlimited political donations gives those with the deepest pockets "undue influence" and "preferential access to ministers".

What do you think?

The House of Lords is increasingly illegitimate Removing hereditary peers won't go far enough to give the Lords legitimacy.

The weaknesses of the House of Lords are a feature, not a bug. The more the Lords resists the elected government, the more illegitimate it appears. The more it complies, the more redundant it becomes.

The Prime Minister said he thinks ‘second jobs for MPs should be banned with very limited exceptions’.

He's been 'engaging with the Standards Committee' on this for over a year now, but we’ve still not heard anything.

We're asking the Chair of that Committee what they're waiting for.