The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
As a campaign organisation, dependent in substantial part on members’ and supporters’ donations, Unlock Democracy is careful to look after the pennies and avoid duplicating effort with partners.
Yet still some of the most common questions posed by our most enthusiastic members are: ‘Why do Unlock Democracy, the Electoral Reform Society (ERS), Make Votes Matter (MVM), FairVoteUK and other organisations all campaign on the same things?’ And ‘Why don’t you talk to each other?’
Part of the answer to the first question is that there will always be a degree of overlap between our activities. Unlock Democracy’s top goal is to secure a written constitution for the UK. But Unlock Democracy also campaigns across the broad front of democratic reforms, including House of Lords, devolution and fair votes. So there’ll be occasions when our messages on fair votes echo those from MVM - which campaigns exclusively for proportional representation - or ERS.
Another partial response to the first question is that even with organisations whose values, principles, vision of a modern UK democracy and objectives we share, there will be differences of emphasis, and occasionally disagreements over tactics or timing of initiatives. Rather than being a source of concern, this is a healthy state of affairs. This helps the democracy movement represent a wider range of views and stress-tests our solutions.
The answer to the second question - ‘Why don’t you talk to each other’ - is an emphatic ‘We Do’. This is how we coordinate our actions and manage any differences.
It is easy for Unlock Democracy to do that with MVM. We share offices. In the last month, we have gone a step further and recruited a joint member of staff, our Media Manager.
We pull together ad-hoc coalitions like the Democracy Defence Coalition (DDC) when there is a need for a sector response to big threats - like the Elections Bill. The DDC comprised a core of 5 or 6 key players, Unlock Democracy being one. Together we coordinated the parliamentary lobbying, providing other campaigners with the messages and resources they needed to fight against measures such as photo voter ID.
We hold regular networking events. Most recently a Democracy Drinks evening in our offices (which we sublet from Best 4 Britain - another democracy organisation). This was planned jointly with Alice Stollmeyer, who set up the international network of #DemocracyDrinks, and the Democracy Network. This brought together around 40 people from groups that focus on different aspects of reform, fair votes, transparency of government etc.
And a fortnight ago, the Democracy Network organised a speaker/workshop-packed two day conference for the democracy sector. As well as providing the perfect opportunity to catch up on news and best practice, regular tea breaks allowed for spontaneous networking.
Constant dialogue, exchange of information, resource-sharing with like-minded groups is an essential part of our campaigning work.
So, with any luck, the next time you receive an email from Unlock Democracy and MVM or ERS you will be reassured that we do work together. We do recognise that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. We know this is how we will succeed in building a better democracy.