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Exploring Further
The purpose of this feature is to take you directly to online content related to aspects of UK politics dealt with in this book. It includes material produced by official institutions, such as the UK government, the devolved institutions, and Parliament. It also has links to the sites of non-governmental organisations that place a significant role in UK politics and reveal something about it. There is written content and datasets addressing various tendencies. In every case, it is important that you think critically, asking: what does this content tell us, about UK politics, about the issues it covers, about the people or organisations producing it, and about the way communication of this type takes place? The feature is divided thematically, with references made to relevant chapters in the book.
Governing the UK
Civil service and policy-forming community
The Understanding the Civil Service site contains a large amount of content, including documents and data, about the contemporary Civil Service and its history.
When you look at this site, you could ask yourself: what the most notable characteristics of the UK Civil Service? What criticisms and pressures is it subject to? How likely is it to be subject to substantial change in future? (See chapters 2 and 3.)
Civil servants play an important part in policy formation; but policy ideas come from a range of sources, including think tanks. You can see examples of two influential think tanks here:
Institute for Public Policy Research
Though both these organisations are independent, Policy Exchange is generally regarded as being more orientated towards the political right and the Conservative Party; while the Institute for Public Policy Research is broadly seen as connected more to the political left and the Labour Party. When looking at their content, you might ask: what is the motivation of these bodies? What are they trying to achieve? How do they go about their work? Why might they be useful to politicians? (See chapters 2, 3, and 6.)
Legislatures of the UK
You can view the proceedings of the different legislatures of the UK online at these sites:
Senedd Cymru/Welsh Parliament (a bilingual service)
Parlamaid na h-Alba/ Scots Pairlament /Scottish Parliament
Tionol Thuaisceart Éireann/Norlin Airlan Assemblie/Northern Ireland Assembly
These channels give you the chance to see parliaments and assemblies at work. It is worth asking: how well do the people in this elected institution represent me and the rest of society? How do they go about performing this task? How effective are they at doing so? You should also think about how important it is that we are now, thanks to the Internet, able to see representative institutions at work in this way (See chapters 1, 4, 7, 9, 10, and 11.)
You can also consider some of these questions through looking at the work of the Hansard Society for Parliamentary Government, a think tank which assesses the work of the UK Parliament.
A particular interest of the Hansard Society has been the use of statutory instruments for law-making purposes. It has produced a feature, the Coronavirus Statutory Instruments Dashboard , that enables us to consider the use of this particular type of measure in response to the coronavirus emergency.
In a representative democracy, members of the UK Parliament are supposed to have regard to the interests of the whole public. One means of seeking to uphold this principle is by requiring parliamentarians to disclose any additional sources of income they may have. You can find these lists at the UK Parliament website.
When browsing these lists, it is worth asking yourself: Are there any interests disclosed here that could be a problem from the point of view of the independence of parliamentarians? Who tends to give these payments of gifts, and why might they do so? Are there other ways in which parliamentarians might be influenced that would not necessarily show up in this list?
The UK constitution
The overall system of government of the UK is a subject of interest for a number of think tanks and research organisations, some examples of which are here. They consider a variety of constitutional issues, including the role of PM and Cabinet, the UK government and Civil Service, the UK Parliament, the legal system, electoral systems, referendums, the impact of the Internet, devolution, and the Union. (See chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 12.)
When considering the work of these bodies as presented on these sites, it is worth asking: why does the UK constitution generate such a wide-raining debate? What are the main points of controversy surrounding it?
Regulatory texts
You can find some important documents providing accounts of the rules applying to the operation of the UK constitution in these two documents, both issued by the UK government.
It is worth asking: what priorities do these documents reveal? Who produced these texts? What might their motives have been? What audiences are they targeted at? How are they enforced? What impact are they likely to have?
Participation and opinion
Elections
The Electoral Commission has statutory responsibility under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 for monitoring compliance with election and referendums law.
You could ask yourself: what are the priorities of this body? How does it go about pursuing them? How well-equipped does it seem to perform the tasks attached to it? (See chapters 7 and 8.)
YouGov tracks voting intention for general elections, as well as surveying the public on other political and non-political issues.
Questions to ask when viewing this site are: what does it reveal about the nature of the UK electoral system? What does it tell us about the ways of assessing public opinion and its likely impact? (See chapter 9.)
Party orientated blogs
These blogs are unofficial, but aimed at supports of, respectively, the Conservative and Labour parties:
Questions to ask when reading these blogs are: what do they tell us about the parties with which they are informally associated and those who support them? Who are the sites aimed at? What do they suggest about the nature of online political communication? What is the agenda of those who set up these sites and those who write for them? (See chapters 6 and 9.)
Public attitudes and participation
The following two sites deal with the ability of the public to petition those in positions of power seeking particular ends.
UK Parliament/government petitions website
When looking at these sites, you could ask yourself: how far has the Internet made it more possible for individuals to combine and pursue political ends? What does it tell us about the type of issues that those who take part in petitioning prioritise? What are the limitations upon petitioning as a meaningful exercise in political activism? (See chapters 7, 9, and 10.)
You can access a series of annual polls on public attitudes towards the UK political system at the Hansard Society’s Audit of Political Engagement. .
When considering these data, you might ask: why are these particular questions being asked? What is the relationship between peoples’ social characteristics, their attitudes towards politics, and the way in which they do (or do not) participate? How much do attitudes change over time, and why? (See chapters 9 and 10.)
Equality and rights
Official bodies and analysis
Equality and Human Rights Commission
When looking at this site, you could ask yourself: what is the task of this body? What are its main concerns? How does it go about realising them? (See chapter 10.)
Official UK government data on ethnicity and police stop and search
What do these data suggest about the nature of policing in the UK? What do they tell you about how far equality is a reality in the UK?
What does this report reveal about the role of women in public life? What do they suggest about equality in UK society and politics generally? (See chapter 10.)
Pressure groups
These are the sites of various pressure groups concerned in various ways with equality and human rights (see chapters 7 and 10):
What do these sites tell us about the particular issues with which they are concerned? What is the agenda of these organisations and how do they go about pursuing them? How effective are they? What do these sites reveal about the nature of political participation and campaigning in the UK?
The outside world
International indices
These sites contain analysis of international tendencies, that place the UK in comparative perspective.
Freedom House ‘Freedom in the World’
Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index
When considering these sites, it is useful to ask: what do they tell us about global trends, and about relative UK performance? What do they reveal about the values and agendas of those who carry out this research? (See chapters 7, 10, and 12.)
Think tanks and research groups
Chatham House (the Royal Institute for International Affairs)
RUSI (Royal United Services Institute)
When viewing these sites, it is useful to ask: what do they tell us about the role if the UK in the world now that Brexit has taken place? What difference has Brexit made to the UK and the outside world? It is also important to ask: what are the priorities of these organisations, and how are they revealed? (See chapters 7, 10, and 12.)