If you’ve enjoyed our “Tales from the Duck House” films, take a look at this “making of…” video, featuring producer John Lloyd talking about what inspired him to role up his sleeves and dive in to the world of political reform.
We’ve also released a new duck video this week – watch a “Partly political broadcast” [...]

Today, Open Up is launching its first major ad campaign in the national press. See if you can spot the ducks swimming through your favourite newspaper, or take a sneak preview now (click on the image, left, to enlarge it).
Jon Miller, who helped create the ads, says he took as his inspiration the inertia of [...]

In the week or so leading up to today’s publication of the Kelly report, as his recommendations slowly and inevitably leaked into the news ahead of time, one thing has been striking. And that is the contrast between MPs’ reactions to Kelly’s proposed changes, and the reaction of the general public.
While MPs have railed against [...]

Here at Open Up, we’ve been following the story of Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Elizabeth Truss with interest. According to this report in the Guardian, members of the South West Norfolk Conservative association are considering deselecting Ms Truss, after it was revealed she had had an extra-marital affair with a Conservative MP – a fact [...]

he idea behind giving MPs public money to keep two homes instead of one, is so that they can maintain a strong connection with their constituency while representing it in Westminster. So who decides when an MP shows up in Parliament and which way they should vote when they get there? Is it:

The people who [...]

This morning, Conservative Home reported that Gosport – home to Sir Peter Viggers and his ducks – would be the next constituency to run an “all-postal” primary to select the Conservative candidate for the next general election.
Conservative party chairman Eric Pickles has now confirmed the news, stating:
“I hope this will build on the success of [...]

Yesterday, Frank Field MP answered the Open Up call for open primaries. Mr Field says that as a sitting MP who’s been shaken by the expenses scandal, he would welcome the opportunity to go back to put his case to his voters. He writes:
“[Sir Thomas Legg’s] letter bangs around in my head incessantly. This is [...]

Over the weekend, the Guardian’s Comment is Free published a piece by Peter Bennett-Jones on why he backs the Open Up campaign, and how comedy (of the sort employed in the Open Up videos) can lead to public engagement and real change.
Peter is chair of Comic Relief. He writes:
“When Comic Relief was started in [...]

Update (22-10-09): You can listen to the show here. You can skip direct to the section on the Open Up campaign – it starts after about 2 hours 29 minutes.

A quick note to supporters that John Lloyd and Anthony Barnett will be discussing the Open Up campaign with Simon Mayo on Radio 5 live today [...]

This is Ben Morgan, from communications consultancy Madano Partnership. Last weekend, Madano released a report which predicted who would be sitting in Parliament after the general elections, based on current opinion polls about the popularity of the major political parties among voters.
Look at him. He looks pretty confident he’s right. I suspect it’s not just [...]