On Sat, Apr 10, 2010 at 01:28:14PM +0000, Abdul Hai wrote: > I agree with to a certain extent Francis but I think it should be > more of an information site rather than a campaigning one. > > It should be a new site and maybe you could run a test during the > next by election to get it ready for the next general election.
Candidate selection can be ongoing throughout the period between General Elections. At least, I know selections were happening a couple of years ago. Anyone know, how soon after an Election do parties start to select candidates for the next election for any seats? > I am not a member of any party as once I used to work in a > politically sensitive job so I don't take part in local parties but > I could be wrong my understanding is that with the Liberal Democrats > and Labour parties that it is the members who vote and they are > likely to be more knowledgeable but with the Conservatives it is > anyone who is eligible can vote. > > I was unable to attend the last primary but the information on the > candidates was lacking and the vast majority of people who attended > were not members of the party so they had no time to gather any > information. Right! It is a very invisible, unscrutinised process. Francis > ________________________________ From: Francis Irving > <[email protected]> To: "mySociety public, general purpose > discussion list" <[email protected]> Cc: - > <[email protected]> Sent: Sat, 10 April, 2010 13:07:54 > Subject: Re: [mySociety:public] Conservative Primaries > > Great idea Abdul. Julian Todd has been saying similar things, and we > reckon something like the following would fit the bill: > > After the Election, I would like somebody (it would fit well with > YourNextMP or DemocracyClub, or could be a new project) to track > candidate selection for all parties on an ongoing basis. > > The site would feature: > > * A page for each local party, with information about how it selects > candidates, who is up for nomination, what stage it is at, who has > been selected, deselected etc. > > * All the data obviously structured, with history etc. Would have to > be user submitted data (YourNextMP style). If there are any votes, > how many people voted which way, how many attended the meeting etc. > > * Email alerts to give you updates about parties in your > constituency, e.g. when there are public selection meetings, or when > it might be worth joining a party in order to influence selection. > > * A way of sharing information about people running to be PPCs. > Basically a YourNextMP type set of information on them. > > * A measure of how democratic the process is for each party (locally > and on average nationally). Other national party statistics > aggregated from the local party info. > > * Possibly could be a campaigning site, with a way of asking / > lobbying for open primaries, or other improvements to candidate > selection processes. > > * Possibly could be a "local party" scrutiny site - so could have > info other than about selection, such as number of local party > members, local party donations and so on. > > What Voter Power (http://www.voterpower.org.uk/) reminds us, is that > most people don't get a vote for their MP. The MP is preordained, > based on the process the party uses to select the candidate. > > A way of improving democracy would be to have more scrutiny of the > candidate selection process. > > Francis > > On Fri, Apr 09, 2010 at 07:18:47PM +0000, Abdul Hai wrote: > > I have been thinking about this for sometime and I was thinking > > wouldn't be a good idea to have a site for all Conservative > > Primaries for the next election. Before people starting making > > comments I would like to say that even though I am Conservative > > supporter it would be useful for non Conservatives as the > > Primaries are open to the general public who live in the area even > > if they are not natural supporters. > > > > We had one in my local area and it would have been useful for > > people to have a site that gave information. I know a lot of > > people who went there are not Tory voters. > > _______________________________________________ Mailing list > [email protected] Archive, settings, or > unsubscribe: > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public > > > > > _______________________________________________ Mailing list > [email protected] Archive, settings, or > unsubscribe: > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public -- Help beat party propaganda at the next election - www.democracyclub.org.uk _______________________________________________ Mailing list [email protected] Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public
