Parliamentary Public Engagement - how's Westminster doing?

UK Parliament compares well with legislatures around the world but can still learn from good practice elsewhere 

A new report from the Hansard Society, Parliaments and Public Engagement: Innovation and Good Practice from Around the World, published today, reveals that the Westminster Parliament is one of the more innovative parliamentary institutions when it comes to engaging the public with its work but that there is still much it can learn from good practice in other countries. 

Celebrities deserve privacy, say young people - December 15

www.headsup.org.uk

Young people taking part in the HeadsUp forum - The Media...is it doing its job? felt that excessive media intrusion into the private lives of celebrities was unacceptable, particularly when it involved their children and families.

The debate - The Media...is it doing its job? - ran from November 21 to December 9, 2011.  This was particularly opportune timing as the Leveson Inquiry was taking evidence throughout this period from celebrities familiar to young people such as JK Rowling and Charlotte Church. Many11-18 year-olds taking part in the HeadsUp forum expressed their support for celebrities who want to protect their privacy:

‘Celebrities should be able to keep their private photos a secret. They can't enjoy a day at the beach without the press watching their every move'

The Media: is it doing its job? - November 15

11-18 year-olds to have their say on press freedom,

the recent hacking scandal and the effects of digital media

21 November - 9 December 2011

HeadsUp.org.uk

HeadsUp is an online forum for young people to explore political issues and learn about politics through debate with their peers and politicians. HeadsUp provides a direct line to politicians, allowing students to get their views across to real decision-makers and is a safe, moderated space that can be used by teachers as a resource for the teaching of Citizenship or PSHE.

Peers should use social media to connect with public, says Lord Sugar - October 31

Lords of the Blog
 
Writing on Lords of the Blog today, Lord Sugar calls on his fellow peers to break down barriers with the public by using social media as a part of everyday political life:

‘Social media means that people can have direct access to me as a Lord and as a businessman. Individuals, campaigning groups and external organisations should be able to contact us and, on some occasions, put us on the spot in public forums for the decisions we take on their behalf......The way I use social media means there are no barriers between me and the public.

‘We should be looking at the best way to break down barriers between the House of Lords and what happens in people's everyday lives; we need to get the message across that what happens in our House actually affects what happens in their house.'

Westminster World Heritage Site and Parliament Square a national disgrace

New vision which puts citizen and visitor at its heart is needed says new report from the Hansard Society

A new report from the Hansard Society - A Place for People – Proposals for Enhancing Visitor Engagement with Parliament’s Environs - exploring how better use can be made of the Westminster World Heritage Site and Parliament Square concludes that rather than a place of national pride this landmark area is a national disgrace.

Inequality to blame for riots, say young people - October 20

www.headsup.org.uk

Seventy-one per cent of 11-18 year-olds taking part in the first HeadsUp forum of the new school year, How equal is Britain?  thought that inequality was either mostly or partly to blame for the riots in English cities this year.

The How equal is Britain? debate, running from September 26 - October 14, attracted a record number of comments from young people. The forum covered a variety of issues ranging from the role of inequality in the recent riots to equal representation in Parliament and sexism in sport. You can read the full report of the debate here.

How equal is Britain? September 22, 2011

11-18 year-olds to discuss the recent riots, and equality

of opportunity in education, sport and youth employment

26 September - 14 October 2011

HeadsUp.org.uk

HeadsUp is an online forum for young people to explore political issues and learn about politics through debate with their peers and politicians. HeadsUp provides a direct line to politicians, allowing students to get their views across to real decision-makers, and talk about the political issues that are important to them.

The first debate of the school term will be ‘How equal is Britain?' and is supported by comprehensive BackUp information for students and Teachers' notes to help plan lessons around the debate topic.

The three-week debate is happening online from Monday 26 September to Friday 14 October 2011 and all of the comments by the legislators and forum users can be viewed throughout the three weeks without registration. The following decision-makers are getting involved, with more to be confirmed soon:

• Caroline Lucas, Leader of the Green Party
• Siobahn McMahon MSP, Member of the Equal Opportunities Committee
  
• Ian Mearns MP, Member of the Education Committee;
• Baroness Morris, Former Secretary of State for Education.

Half the public don’t know and don’t care about Parliament - August 18 2011

Connecting Citizens to Parliament - research from the Hansard Society published today - demonstrates that half the public (52%) are not really interested in Parliament and do not want to be involved in what it does.

The research explores which communities and social groups are not engaging with Parliament, why and how this might be redressed. It concludes that connecting with ‘hard to reach' groups cannot be achieved by a sudden radical change of approach, but demands a number of smaller cumulative step-changes, many of which Parliament can initiate or suggest but cannot necessarily lead.

The Connecting Citizens to Parliament research is based on a quantitative survey of 2,005 adults and five qualitative semi-structured focus groups. It confirms that social class and age are the strongest determining factors for engagement. Barriers to engagement include:

Hansard Society at Festival of Politics

Has Twitter changed the world?  Social media and Scottish politics

Thursday August 25

1.30 - 2.30pm Room P1.02

Scottish Parliament, Holyrood Road

This event is free to attend

(Registration required at www.festivalofpolitics.org.uk )

 This year's Festival of Politics in Edinburgh runs from 20 - 27 August and presents a diverse programme of events bringing together politics, media and the arts through performance, discussion and debate.  One theme of this year's Festival is an exploration of how technological and cultural revolutions are influencing politics in an increasingly transparent and interactive world.  The Hansard Society will be hosting an event which will consider whether the use of Twitter (and other social media) by participants in events such as the Arab spring has lessons for parliamentary democracies like Scotland.

Chair:

• Lesley Riddoch -  journalist and broadcaster

Speakers:

• Andy Williamson - Hansard Society Director of Digital Democracy,
• Peter Cruickshank - Research Fellow, International Teledemocracy Centre, Edinburgh Napier University.
• Joan McAlpine MSP - SNP
• Kezia Dugdale MSP - Scottish Labour

• Hansard Society welcomes Commons e-Petitions initiative

  A well-designed process will help public engage with work of Parliament

   

  Today's announcement by Sir George Young MP, Leader of the House, that a new petitions site will be opened on DirectGov is welcomed by the Hansard Society which has long campaigned for the Westminster Parliament to initiate an e-Petitions system to help revitalise public engagement with Parliament.

   

  Dr Andy Williamson, Director of the Hansard Society's Digital Democracy programme commented:  ‘The ePetitions proposal is a very realistic step forward using methods and process that increase the opportunity for the public to propose subjects for parliamentary debate and enhance the role of the Backbench Business Committee to take relevant petitions forward.

   

  ‘The value of the proposed system is that it contains an underlying process which guarantees an authentic and considered response to the concerns raised in the petition in contrast to the now defunct Downing Street venture which offered no  parliamentary response. The examples in Scotland and Wales prove that an ePetitions system can be an effective way to update the procedure to bring it into line with the way modern society thinks, works and communicates. The Hansard Society's Audit of Political Engagement consistently tells us that signing a petition is the democratic activity people are most likely to do other than vote. Petitions matter as a potential on-ramp to democratic re-engagement.'

   

  For further information, contact Virginia Gibbons, Head of Communications at the Hansard Society on 020 7438 1225 or mediaprog@hansard.lse.ac.uk