An ‘open’ primary was held in Esher and Walton, a Tory safe seat, last week. Dominic Raab, a lawyer who currently serves as Chief of Staff to Dominic Grieve, won on the second ballot after fellow candidate, Jo-Anne Nadler, was knocked out in the first round.
The event was attended by over 700 members of the [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Democracy is made up of an informed electorate.
It sounds simple but let me deconstruct this. We need information to be informed and we need the ability to exercise our vote in a meaningful way to be a valid electorate. In the current set up we get neither and thus we cannot honestly call the [...]

We’re ecstatic with the support we’ve received so far for the Open Primaries petition. Thanks to Stephen Fry (and to everyone else as well) for tweeting about the campaign – and for nearly breaking the website! Hopefully, we’re now back to normal service, so if you weren’t able to sign the petition first thing this [...]

They just don’t get it.
As MPs continue to duck (quack!) the public’s wrath over expenses, that’s the mantra we keep hearing. The belief that all that’s wrong with our political system is the people who’ve ended up at the top of it is a seductive one. But the real effect of the public scandal has [...]