David Schley

Addressing the many different challenges to  democracy in the UK can feel overwhelming, but Unlock Democracy has always been good at unpicking them and finding practical solutions. I would love to support the fantastic team we have by joining the council and shaping our strategy and plans, at a time when we have the best opportunity in decades to secure meaningful change. 

I’ve been delivering successful charity campaigns for over a decade, helping to influence policy and empower people with information to drive change. I’m driven by a desire to see a fairer society, where everybody gets to contribute to debate and open decision making. 

I am deputy-director of an independent charity that stands up for the public interest in evidence, and can contribute skills and experience in charity governance and strategic planning to the board, as well as an understanding of government and influencing, and insights from a previous career as a researcher, teacher, youth worker and university lecturer. 

Securing genuine democracy that is inclusive and transparent is essential if we are to find fair solutions to today’s problems in society – from housing and health to climate change and employment. Unlock Democracy is unique in putting forward the public case for constitutional change, and we must now be ready to seize the moment. 

For too many years we have seen reform of the House of Lords repeatedly discussed, only to be abandoned, leaving us with an upper chamber bloated with unelected cronies and hereditary peers. We saw the case for proportional representation (PR) diluted into a meaningless referendum on the Alternative Vote, and the public never given the choice of PR. And we’ve had to watch as power has become more centralised, not less, with communities losing local accountability for things like education, and councils pitted against each other to fight for government funds. 

I want Unlock Democracy to continue to work closely with allied organisations including Make Votes Matter, the Sortition Foundation, the Electoral Reform Society and Compass to deliver the following for the UK in the next 5 years: 

1) Proportional representation at Westminster 

2) An elected second chamber 

3) Transparency in government decision making 

4) Automatic voter registration 

Unlock Democracy has always been a member led organisation, and as a member of the council I would be committed to listening to the priorities of supporters. 

I’m a longstanding and active supporter of Unlock Democracy, with a particular passion for electoral reform, ready to contribute more to its success.

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