KHAN HOT UNDER THE COLLAR

By Selina Seesunkur

Whilst Sadiq Khan won a second term as Mayor, it was not an easy fight. In the first round, no one candidate secured 50 per cent of the vote at first preference. Very few imagined that Shaun Bailey AM would do as well as he did, but Shaun ran a clean fight based on his own personal experience of growing up in hardship in London, enabling him to increase the Conservative vote share by 1.5%. This meant the Conservatives were able to obtain an extra seat on the Assembly.

Pollsters predicted Khan would win more than half of the first-round votes, but he failed to reach his record-setting vote total of 2016, winning with a 228,000-vote majority. Voter turnout was 42%, a drop of 4% from 2016. Despite having a vey high number of candidates it certainly was a two-horse race with Sadiq Khan obtaining 1,013,721 of the first preference votes and Shaun Bailey 893,051. But the gap widened when the count went to the second preference votes, with Shaun Bailey achieving 26,3812 and Sadiq Khan 40,0478. Labour now holds 11 seats, whilst the Conservatives hold 9, Green Party 3 and Liberal Democrats 2. A record number of ballot papers were rejected as the new style pro-forma caused much confusion with voters, resulting in 114,201 rejected. Could this have made all the difference?

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

 

In his speech Shaun said he had been written off “by pollsters, by journalists, by fellow politicians. But it’s no surprise to me that Londoners didn’t write me off.” Shaun promised to tackle crime by recruiting 8000 more police officers, he said he would reverse the ULEZ, and would deliver 100,000 shared ownership homes that would be sold at £100,000 each, whilst Khan has a track record of failing to deliver on crime, housing and the environment.

Selina Seesunkur

Selina Seesunkur

CITIZENLAB LAUNCHES OPEN SOURCE ENGAGEMENT TECH TO EMPOWER LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

Civic Tech platform CitizenLab is today announcing a move to open up the core version of its community engagement software, in an effort to equip smaller organisations and communities with the tools to democratise policy-making by involving more citizens. Available from March 31st, the open source code can be found on GitHub, enabling civic organisations to deploy and run their own virtual consultation projects, for free. 

CitizenLab’s technology allows people to make their voices heard using purpose built software designed to improve efficiency within civic decision-making. The platform provides governments, local authorities, and membership organisations with a ‘digital democracy toolbox’. This enables them to enrich community meetings with virtual discussion forums, organise votes on suggested policy changes, or gather new ideas through surveying tools. The civic engagement tools have been developed through a recognition of the need to improve outdated bureaucratic processes with innovative technology, increasing transparency and political participation. 

The open source software will be available through an AGPLv3 license, as demand for open software continues to grow amongst local governments. This will allow for the features to be made fully accessible and replicable, enabling organisations to deploy the platform on their own servers, make changes to the code, and power basic community engagement projects easily and efficiently. This move will mostly benefit small organisations and civic groups, who until now may not have been able to afford a licence. 

Founders - Wietse Van Ransbeeck, Aline Muylaert, and Koen Gremmelprez and team

Founders - Wietse Van Ransbeeck, Aline Muylaert, and Koen Gremmelprez and team

Larger clients and governments will continue to have access to paid-for licences, which come with technical support, guidance, and tailored advice. For larger institutions, the move to open source will be an opportunity to increase collaboration with their communities and develop custom integrations for their engagement projects. Organisations including Sport England, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have already embraced CitizenLab over the past few months, in a bid to ensure members’ and community voices are heard. 

“Our move to open source is a way to practice what we preach. We cannot credibly champion transparency and openness to the governments we work with, if we do not practice it ourselves, and if the underlying infrastructure is entirely closed-source. Democracy should not be left to the black-box algorithms of private companies - it belongs to all of us.

“We have also noticed that the demand for open source is growing amongst local governments. Making the move to open source will enable us to collaborate with governments on high-impact projects and provide adequate tools for online deliberation at a regional or national scale”.

Wietse Van Ransbeeck, CitizenLab’s

CitizenLab successfully launched in the UK in January 2020, and has previously worked with over 200 governments across 11 different countries to improve digital democracy. The decision to release an open source version of the software is reflective of CitizenLab’s willingness to prioritise  wider societal benefit over profit. 

Wietse Van Ransbeeck

Wietse Van Ransbeeck

I'VE ALWAYS BEEN A CONSERVATIVE

By Kemi Badenoch MP

I've always been a Conservative. I didn't know it when I was younger, but I certainly was.  

Margaret Thatcher was an inspiration to me, even as a child growing up in Nigeria.  Her achievements as a woman in politics in the 1970s and 1980s made her a global icon.  Moving to the UK, I learned more about her values of self-reliance, personal responsibility and free markets which I very much share.  

I joined the Conservative Party in 2005.  At the time, many people assumed the Labour Party was the party for ethnic minorities but I knew my values and so many others from immigrant have values of personal responsibility and entrepreneurship that are more aligned with Conservatives.  

Becoming an MP is a combination of perseverance and luck.  Most people who stand for election will not win and will lose at least once.  It is very easy to get disillusioned but I had a lot of encouragement and support from my party, from the party chairman to members of my local association and in fact, still do even now as a minister!

I'm proud of the party's record on diversity. It is well known that the Conservative Party has now had 2 female Prime Ministers but less about the amazing work the Prime Minister has done in attracting a more diverse talent-pool.  This has been reflected in his appointment of the most ethnically diverse Cabinet in history.

In 2009, we had 2 MPs from ethnic minority backgrounds. Following the 2019 election we now have 22 including 5 members of the cabinet and several like myself in other ministerial positions.

We have achieved this in a meritocratic way -encouraging and developing the best candidates and never with quotas or identity politics.

Identity is multi-faceted and Conservatives do not pigeonhole people based on visible traits. I am black, and also a woman, a mother, a politician, an engineer, British and Nigerian. All of these things have an effect on my views and my politics more so than my skin colour.

That is why I set objectives during my time as Vice Chair to encourage candidates with a breadth of talent and diversity of experience to stand.  Today our party is as representative as possible of our country’s diversity. To me that means increasing the number of nurses, doctors, teachers, engineers and those with STEM backgrounds, alongside encouraging ethnic minorities, women and LGBT people. I’m glad that I’ve also been able to continue this work beyond the party candidates process, and in my government roles as Treasury and Equalities minister.

The advice I would give to women specifically who want to get involved is "Don't let imposter syndrome stop you".  Politics isn't easy, but the earlier you get involved, the more you will learn.  Help others on their political journeys by getting involved in campaigning and they will help you in return - and you will make friends for life!