Tag: Josh Cowls

The Labour leadership election is Britain’s first ever prime ministerial primary

The Labour leadership election is Britain’s first ever prime ministerial primary

Win or lose, Corbyn’s success adds credence to the conclusion that Britain is in the midst of its first prime ministerial primary, writes Josh Cowls. The most significant factor for this is Labour’s new voting system and its lower barriers to membership. These changes have blurred the lines between party membership and the American system […]

The best of Democratic Audit’s 2014 coverage of democracy’s technological advance

The best of Democratic Audit’s 2014 coverage of democracy’s technological advance

Is the future of democracy digital? In 2014, Democratic Audit UK carried numerous pieces of analysis, research, and argument concerning the interplay between technology, politics, parties, and representation, with the best appearing below in the latest of our 2014 round-ups. Similar PostsSocial media may have the potential to truly enhance our democracy, but there is […]

What the Thornberry affair tells us about politicians online

What the Thornberry affair tells us about politicians online

Emily Thornberry was forced to resign as shadow Attorney General after her now infamous tweet of white van parked outside a house draped in England flags. The Thornberry affair is evidence that what many see as the trend towards the increasingly professionalised, stage-managed, spin-doctored presentation of British politicians has not yet fully spread to online social […]

Fahrenheit 404: Party attitudes to web archiving are a worrying sign for digital-era democracy

Fahrenheit 404: Party attitudes to web archiving are a worrying sign for digital-era democracy

November of last year saw a spate of “cyber-revisionism” by both Labour and the Tories as the parties attempted to erase archived material from their websites and, in the Conservative case, from the wider web. To Josh Cowls and Mor Rubenstein this revelation is just another particularly pronounced example of the actual experience of political parties on the internet […]