You can probably guess which newspaper site thiscomes from?
Most modern campaigns seek to respond to the perceived failings of mass/mainstream media by using the potential of social, and stunts designed to gain coverage in mass media outlets. This extends to financing - which the newspaper above noted with distaste!
The 1st 3 are campaigning from a left-wing stance; Fathers4Justice largely from a right-wing stance (though there is considerable variation amongst its membership)
See also No More Page 3 (DB MediaReg blog) which used similar tactics, + won the support of Caroline Lucas - who was warned for wearing their tee-shirt in a Commons debate!
Some resources on how the UK Parliament works. Or doesn't....
Trust in government has fallen away significantly since 2016. A similar survey in 2016 showed that 22% of people said they trust the government “most of the time” or ‘“just about always”, the highest level in NSCR surveys since 2007.
By 2019 this had dropped to 15%, the lowest level recorded in over 40 years, with more than twice as many people, 34%, saying they “almost never” trust the government. (Guardian)
The government’s Brexit strategy is in danger of driving the UK down a “very slippery slope” towards “dictatorship” or “tyranny”, according to a former president of the supreme court.
Addressing an online meeting of lawyers, Lord Neuberger on Wednesday evening condemned the internal market bill, which enables the government to breach international law and exempts some of its powers from legal challenge.
[Former Tory Attorney General] Grieve said not only did the bill breach international law, it contained an “ouster clause which goes to the heart of parliamentary democracy”, preventing the government being challenged over its actions.(Guardian)
The UK Parliament YouTube channel is an excellent resource (though as an official site it can sometimes present
an over-optimistic view of how the Parliament functions in real life). Below
is a screenshot of some of
their playlists.
Example of the Parliament: An Introduction to Parliament (most of the vids are shorter, 1-2mins)
The Parliament channel also have much longer videos from 9 years ago: Select Committees (19mins)
SPADS! UNELECTED...UNACCOUNTABLE?
The role of the special advisor is a very controversial one, with Dominic Cummings' role in government widely seen as undermining democracy: as PM Johnson's most senior/influential advisor, he is overseeing an attempt to centralise power even further in Number 10, and sideline even the cabinet, never mind Parliament! He made history when he was given the Number 10 garden for his press conference to make a statement following the press revelations about his trip to Durham, seemingly in breach of covid regulations.
As neither formally a civil servant nor an elected politician, yet as a clear part of the executive, he cannot be called for questions in the Commons nor held formally responsible for any policy decisions. Can the legislature have any real impact on or scrutiny of him? The 18-rated BBC TV series the Thick of It satirises the role of such (usually) shadowy figures.
Here's the notorious episode of BBC's Newsnight when a fed up senior journalist calculated that Cummings' behaviour was so clearly out of line that the usual 'balance' wasn't required (her bosses disagreed and warned her).
This controversy was even covered in breakfast TV - it was the dominant media story for a week. For once the right-wing press were also highly critical of the Tory government and PM Johnson - notably the Daily Mail. Cummings/Johnson seem to have calculated that the press was not as powerful as it used to be and dismissed all the pressure to sack Cummings. Months later - perhaps they were correct. Cummings remains at the very centre of the UK government, as unaccountable as ever to the UK legislature (or the executive?!).
THE ROLE OF THE MP
MPs' reputation has been absolutely battered in recent years, from the endless series of sex and corruption scandals that wrecked the premiership of Thatcher's successor, John Major to the Daily Telegraph's expenses scandal (MPs were found to be claiming for all sorts of things including...have their moat cleaned; some were actually jailed for fraud: claiming payment on a house they didn't actually live in), to multiple cash for questions cases.
The DUP's Ian Paisley Jr even faced a recall vote when he was revealed to have asked questions in the Commons about Sri Lanka ... but hadn't registered his paid visit to Sri Lanka. This requires 10% of constituents to vote for a recall and force a bye-election. He narrowly avoided this: 9.4% registered for a recall vote.
But that can give a very unfair impression of the work MPs actually do - and such stories clearly contributed to the protest vote element of the Brexit vote. MPs routinely hold surgeries (open office) for constituents, regardless of how they voted, to help them with problems they face with branches of government especially.
Here's a great example of a passionate MP at work. Mhairi Black (SNP) was just 20 when elected!
THE SPEAKER:
ALONG WITH SUPREME COURT + GOVERNMENT BACKBENCHERS, THE MAIN BARRIER TO ELECTIVE DICTATORSHIP?
Betty Boothroyd kickstarted the 1990s modernisation of the role, ditching many of the ceremonial aspects that went back centuries in an effort to make the Commons (by then always televised live) look more relatable and professional to modern voters. The traditional wig was an early casualty!
John Bercow will be studied for decades to come - his battles with Boris Johnson (and Jacob Rees-Mogg) and his treatment by the right-wing press (who felt he was overstepping his role/powers and actively trying to block Brexit) were extraordinary. Johnson broke with centuries of tradition by refusing to give Bercow a peership when he stood down at the 2019 election.
This video, from right-wing tabloid The Sun (Murdoch), doesn't show MPs at their best (though the likes of Skinner are arguably standing on points of principle!), but do show examples of the Speaker intervening to ensure order. Will current Speaker (Bercow's former Deputy) Sir Lindsay Hoyle prove such a notable figure? He has already blocked MPs from voting to stop the extension of emergency covid powers (as Bercow was Tory and Hoyle is Labour, both are arguably good examples of how The Speaker must be neutral).
