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Funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust |
This website © Democratic Audit 2006
Breaking News 17/12/2007: NEW REPORT BY ONE WORLD TRUST, FEDERAL TRUST AND DEMOCRATIC AUDIT CONDEMNS PERFORMANCE OF PARLIAMENT IN OVERSEEING EXTERNAL POLICY. Our new report published today, 'A World of Difference', analyses the performance of MPs and Peers over the 2006-7 session in scrutinising key aspects of foreign policy. It concludes that Parliament is ineffective at overseeing the broad strategic issues; and seldom influences government over the detail. It makes a number of proposals for change. Read our press release or Download report here. ARCHIVE NEWS: DEMOCRATIC AUDIT, FEDERAL TRUST AND ONE WORLD TRUST BROADLY WELCOME HISTORIC CONSTITUTIONAL PROGRAMME AND HOPE FOR SUCCESSFUL DETAILED IMPLEMENTATION AND NEW PARLIAMENTARY CULTURE Gordon Brown’s statement to the House on Tuesday 3 July and the Ministry of Justice Green Paper The Governance of Britain amount to an historic programme for constitutional reform, delivering some – but not all – of the recommendations we have made for enhanced democratic oversight of external policy. There are flaws and aspects that require clarification in the proposals; and if they are to succeed, MPs must - with the government’s cooperation - develop new parliamentary practices and ‘mainstream’ foreign and European policy issues at Westminster. We analyse the proposals here: [Word] [PDF]. For discussion of the entire constitutional reform agenda, visit the openDemocracy OurKingdom site.
What Britain does abroad - from making war and combating terrorism to negotiating on climate change and trade - affects all of us in our everyday lives in more ways than we think. But even in the new global era, British 'foreign' policy is a largely closed world. This site is dedicated to prising it open. Even MPs have little or no say in the decisions that the Prime Minister, other ministers and officials take in our name in international affairs. They are often as much in the dark as the rest of us, and equally likely to be deceived. The parliamentary vote on war against Saddam's Iraq was held long after the decision to invade had been taken. Here we highlight the problems of achieving parliamentary oversight of the range of foreign policy. We also provide an electronic portal to the myriad of organisations which both form and oversee that policy. This site is a product of an ongoing research project by Democratic Audit, the Federal Trust, and One World Trust. You will find our full analysis in our book Not in Our Name: Democracy and Foreign Policy in the UK, published by Politico's (ISBN 1 84275 150 6). Click on the left to find out how effective a job Parliament does in your area of interest; including links to relevant organisations and oversight bodies. If you wish to raise an issue of concern try contacting a democratically elected representative, at local, regional, national or European level. See our reform proposals for improving democratic oversight of UK external policy |