ABOUT
ElectionsUK.org, CommunitySurveys.net, HealthGovuk.org,
?
ELECTORAL
EDUCATION?Limited ?
for Impartial
Election Education www.ElectionsUK.org
Aims -
To
initiate, design and develop Impartial Electoral Education and Communication,
using the Internet as the catalyst,
to assist the current and future electorate in making informed political
decisions and to inform those elected of their views.
Objectives
- Providing
local information on elections to assist in re-connecting the elected with
their electorate
Supporting
educational programmes in schools and colleges.
Stimulating
discussion through local media technology and surveys.
Developing
access by Digital TV and other electronic means..
Using
video, quotes from candidates are a fundamental part of the programme and
interconnection with other media sources and impartial educational
organisations will be sought.
Promoting
social inclusion by multi language usage and delivery by web, CD, text or tape
as required.
To cover?General, By and European Elections (MP’s
& MEP’s)
Mayoral Elections,
Local Councils and Elections, Youth Parliament (MYP)
Euro
& European Constitution Referendum, Regional Assembly Referendums &
Elections,
2nd
Chamber (successor to House of Lords) Elections
"It's vital
that voters know as much as possible about what they're voting for, and this
innovative site makes an important and valuable contribution."?
"This is a
valuable initiative which uses the web in innovative ways - especially the
audio messages from candidates."
Professor
Stephen Coleman
- Professor of e-democracy at the Oxford
And senior research associate with the
Hansard Society's E-Democracy Programme.
Re Concept for Great Grimsby General
Election website.
EXPERIMENTAL
WORK
Projects
covered so far
?See www.ElectionsUK.org
1.
2001 General
Election
impartial websites for
2.
Mayoral Elections impartial websites at
3.
ELECT has prepared a paper to suggest that political
election websites should be accredited as party political, general or
Impartial.
This comes about
because of Dr Stephen Coleman’s paper on the
4.
2003 North
5.
2003 European Debate at Grimsby Institute impartially chaired by ElectionsUK
6.
2003 Planning stage for North West Regional Assembly for impartial information debates and interactive website and Lesson
Plans to inform the public about the Elected Assembly Referendum (Nov 2004)
funded by NWRA.
7.
2004 Regional Referendum Debate on the fringe of the Conservative Spring Conference at
8.
2004 North
9.
2005 Pre Election Debate at the
10.
2005 Election Debate with all
the candidates at the
11.
2005 Election Debate at
12.
2005 Election Debate with all
candidates for the Great Grimsby Constituency chaired by
13.
?lt;/span>Submissions and
follow up to the POWER INQUIRY study on how to improve democracy sponsored by
Joseph Rowntree Charitable and Reform Trusts.
14.
2006 NELincs
15.
2007-8 Working with North Lincolnshire & Goole Hospitals
Foundation Trust to carry out a?pilot with
Foundation Trust Network members;
objective to develop a cost effective robust 2 way method of interaction
between public, members, Governors and Directors.-called www.HealthGovUK.org
16.
Current
work.
1)
2007 -8?To
produce a system to allow MP’s to connect with their constituents to obtain
their opinions. www.CommunitySurveys.net?
2)
?lt;/span>Working with
digital and ipTV specialists to interact with doctors surgeries.called Health
& Wellbeing TV
3)
2007 Developing a Digital web TV approach to
connect Councillors with their constituents between elections.
4)
Rolling Out the 2003 Council Election “Encouraging
Participation?Package in light of the Electoral Administration Bill 2006 and
tying it into the lifetime education concept.
5)
Preparing an impartial review - “What if?of the
4 positions of European cooperation for European Constitution Referendum
including the future direction of the European Union.
6)
Developing the idea of Local Democracy Hubs by
piloting YOUNG DEMOCRACY HUBS to assist connecting Electoral Services, Schools
and Youth Services with democratically elected young people.
ABOUT
ELECT and UNIVERSITY MEMBERS
Officers
of Electoral Education Limited ?a company limited by guarantee No 4561554
Founder
Directors and Working Group members
Director & Executive Secretary -
John
Trevitt
?Former Chief executive Immage Studios/Channel 7 Television & Consultant
East Coast Media
Working Group members
Martin Vickers ?Conservative N.E.Lincs. Councillor, Cabinet member and
Agent for Edward Leigh MP
Paul
Chaplin ?Director of KP Packaging Ltd
Stephen
Ryder ?Manager - CPO Media
Trevor Ellis ?Mariner Computer Services
James Ellis - Mariner Business Applications
Limited
Muriel
Barker CBE ?former Yorkshire Forward, Humber Forum, former
Chairman of Open School Network. Former Labour shadow leader N.E.Lincs. Councillor,
Geoff
Lowis ?Liberal Democrat N.E.Lincs. Councillor and
Cabinet Member
Jenny Fenton - Electoral
Services Officer, North
Hull University Working Group leader
Professor
The Lord Norton of Louth, Professor of Government University of Hull, Recently
Chairman House of Lords Constitution Committee, President The Politics
Association, Vice President The Political Studies Association, Council Hansard
Society -?Conservative
Advisory
Panels ?members?(under development)
Lord Chris Haskins ?Recently Chairman?Better
Regulation Task Force, member of New Deal Task Force, Trustee of DEMOS, a
member of the CBI President's Council. Former Chairman of Northern Foods Plc
and Express Dairies Plc.
Robert Marcus
?Chat Moderators Ltd working with e envoy, BBC etc.- Moderation of
online chat and discussion forums
Rob
Walsh
?Deputy Director ?Law and Democratic Services North
Andrew
McKinnon
?Propeller, Immage Studios,
Background
In January 2001, a passing remark by
Over
the last 3 ?years a format was devised for impartial election educational
websites using the 2001 General Election constituencies of Great Grimsby and
Cleethorpes as the initial pilots, supported by the Community Partnership for
North East Lincolnshire.?In May 2002 the
Doncaster Mayoral Elections were covered with extra audio content.?A major pilot project was carried out with
the support of The Electoral Commission ?New Initiatives Fund for local
elections 2003.
This
project was to reengage the candidates of North East Lincolnshire (
64
of the 91 candidates cooperated with the project and this can be seen at Local
Elections on this page.
In
October 2003 we hosted a lively debate in
In
late 2003 we were asked by the North West Regional Assembly to devise &
oversee an impartial project to inform the public in their region of 6.1
Million people about the issues raised by Elected Regional government. This
project was fully developed ready to launch the big drive to interview the 76
MP’s plus MEP’s Council, opposition, business and community leaders for their
views broken down into their 5 County / sub regional / local parts.
A
Lesson plan was developed and then vetted By Prof Lord Norton, Chairman of the
House of Lords Constitutional Committee and Debates initially around the spring
party conferences were arranged. After this developmental stage the funding
could not be found. Probably because indications were appearing that the
referendum was about to be abandoned. We did however run a very good debate
attached to the Conservative Conference in
In
May / June 2004 the North East Lincolnshire local elections were covered again
using the technical format developed the year before as a base. This time 27 of
the 35 candidates cooperated and we produced lesson plans for the schools and
we were supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.
January
2006 the UK Youth Parliament Elections in North East Lincolnshire was covered
using the ElectionsUK systems raising participation by over 10 times and
arranging Polling Stations in 10 schools.
These
sites are still online under www.ElectionsUK.org
From June 2007 we have been working with the North
Lincolnshire & Goole Hospitals Foundation Trust to carry out a pilot with
Foundation Trust Network members; objective
to develop a cost effective robust 2 way method of interaction between public,
members, Governors and Directors.-Current Survey now online at?www.HealthGovUK.org
In
November 2001 a report was issued by the House of Commons Public Administration
Committee, suggesting a Democracy Commission be set up to encourage voting.
Following
contacts with The Electoral Commission, the Hansard Society, House of Commons
Public Administration Select Committee, DTLR ?Local Government Modernisation
Team, Yorkshire Forward, The Radio Authority and Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust it was decided that this Educational
Charity be formed as a not for profit vehicle to develop the ideas.
After
further contacts with the Electoral Commission, ELECT asked to become the
Impartial Euro Referendum website and was recommended to get partners and to
see the Irish Referendum Commission for ideas.
This
was done and Lord Norton of Louth, Professor of Government at
Working
in collaboration with Hull University and the Electoral Commission, the concept
of forming the nucleus of an informal independent “democratic commission?or
Association), including a Referendum Commission to take the lead in electoral
education both nationally and internationally was considered..
Partnerships
were secured with Chatmoderators Ltd ?for discussion group moderation and
YOUGOV.com ?for especially commissioned independent Polls.
The
Men
and Women will only be excluded by choice as many neighbourhood organisations
are increasing web access to those interested.
Using the internet
as a library, information can be transferred where required to audio tape / CD
versions / print - could be produced for those without computers and foreign
language versions for ethnic minorities.