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Follow us on twitterPolicy 2012 - Next Steps
21st December 2011 10:15 | by ajehals
The Pirate Party Needs Your Help
The Party is asking volunteers to join policy working groups in
the next stage of Policy 2011. We want you to get involved in the discussion and the refinement of policies for our next manifesto and beyond.
If you want to be involved, are a member and would like to help shape the party for 2012 then join one or more of the working groups listed below. You can do this by signing up to the working group mailing lists (Send an email with 'subscribe' as the subject, to the relevant address).
Updates will be available at www.pirateparty.org.uk and from the working group leaders via the mailing list. If you are already familiar with the policy process, you can skip the next bit and scroll down to the description and email addresses for the groups below right away.
If you are not a member, you can join at https://www.pirateparty.org.uk/party/membership/
Introduction
The policy process for 2011 began in October and is moving into its next phase. It has involved thousands of people so far, both party members and the wider public who have submitted well in excess of two hundred individual policy suggestions and thousands of comments. The magnitude of the response, the breadth and scope of the policy suggestions and the depth of the discussion and commentary have all exceeded both mine and the Party's expectations. We are moving into the second phase where we need your help to further refine and build on those suggestions.
The policy suggestions that you submitted, commented on and discussed cover a broad range of topics. These are topics that people feel strongly about, topics that people feel are fair or redress unfairness in the UK today. Many are topics that have been ignored or sidelined by the coalition and previous government. In all they provide us with an opportunity to put together an honest and full programme of policies and ideas for the coming years.
The Next Steps
Our job now is to live up to our potential, to use the experts amongst us, the skills our members have and our ability to research and communicate to fully develop those policies.
It is for this reason that today I am asking for party members to join the policy process more formally. The Party is looking for members to join our policy working groups to research, flesh out, polish and finalise the suggestions we have. Equally importantly we are looking for members to coordinate each group and collaborate and connect with other working groups.
The Groups
The working groups for the policy process are:
The Constitutional Reform Working Group: constitutional-reform@pirateparty.org.uk
Copyright & Patents, Information Policy Working Group: cpip@pirateparty.org.uk
Culture Media and Sport Working Group: cms@pirateparty.org.uk
Defence Working Group: defence@pirateparty.org.uk
Economic Working Group: economic@pirateparty.org.uk
Education Working Group: education@pirateparty.org.uk
Environmental, Transport,
Energy & Science Policy Working Group: etesp@pirateparty.org.uk
European Policy, Foreign Policy,
Scotland and Immigration Working Group: efsip@pirateparty.org.uk
Health Working Group: health@pirateparty.org.uk
Justice Working Group: justice@pirateparty.org.uk
Restoring Trust in Government &
Politics Working Group: rtigp@pirateparty.org.uk
Social Policy Working Group: social-policy@pirateparty.org.uk
Welfare Reform Working Group: welfare-reform@pirateparty.org.uk
The Constitutional Reform Working Group
constitutional-reform@pirateparty.org.uk
This working group will deal with all the policy suggestions that relate to constitutional matters within the UK, ranging from the role of the monarchy through to electoral reform and the make up of the upper house.
Copyright & Patents, Information Policy Working Group
This working group will work with what has always been regarded as core Pirate Party policy, copyrights, patents and digital issues. It is hoped that as well as looking at the new suggestions we have had in these areas, that we can work to ensure the policies we have reflect their impact on all parts of society and the economy.
Culture Media and Sport Working Group
The Culture Media and Sport Working group is going to tackle the tricky subject of the media, from press regulation through to issues with broadcasting as well as policies that touch on culture more broadly and those relating to the promotion and maintenance of our proud sporting and cultural heritage.
Defence Working Group
This working group will be working toward putting together our strategic and tactical military policies, covering areas such as current conflicts as well as preparations for the future and making sure that current and former service personnel are appropriately looked after.
Economic Working Group
The Economic Working Group will be tasked to deal with some of the most pressing and complex policy decisions the party has to make. In the current economic crisis it is vital that the party has the right ideas to ensure that people up and down the country, families, businesses, those seeking work and those retiring are protected from the worst effects of the downturn, whilst ensuring that the UK is positioned well for the future.
Education Working Group
Education policies are ideas that have some of the largest impact over the long term and the Education working group will be responsible for ensuring that our policies are well tailored to the needs of those in, and those that may wish to get back into education.
Environmental, Transport, Energy & Science Policy Working Group
The Environmental, Transport, Energy & Science Policy Working Group will be responsible for ensuring that the party has responsible policies to help the UK move forward in this Century and helping us to devise ways of promoting sustainability and new technology in areas such as Transport and Energy generation.
European Policy, Foreign Policy, Scotland and Immigration Working Group
The European, Foreign, Scotland and Immigration Policy Working Group will look at the relationship between the UK and it's neighbours, as well as the relationships between members of the union. It will be asked to develop policies in areas of vital national interest, including immigration and the UK's relationship with the Euro-zone 16 and the wider European Union.
Health Working Group
The Health Working group will be tasked with developing party policy in all areas of health policy. This includes presenting the parties stance on how health should be delivered as well as dealing with issues like the purchasing of drugs and delivering IT projects in the current NHS.
Justice Working Group
The Justice working group will have the vital job of ensuring that the party has policies that are in line with it's principles of promoting and protecting civil liberties. This again is a vital area of policy delivery and one that covers a very wide area. Many of the parties core positions relate to justice and as such the importance of ensuring that our policies are fully researched and well presented cannot be understated.
Restoring Trust in Government & Politics Working Group
This working group covers the area that saw the most active debate and some of the loudest calls for action from the public consultation. Many people are concerned about the way the country is run, the way governments act, about the actions of politicians and about the way they are represented. It is also an area in which the Party has been actively advocating for change. The members of this working group will be asked to pull together the ideas that have so far been presented and creating a cohesive approach for the party in this area.
Social Policy Working Group
social-policy@pirateparty.org.uk
The Social Policy Working Group will be looking at presenting how the party's social aims can be implemented through policy, this is an area where the party can break new ground and show that it has real relevance to the political discourse in the UK and a stake in the future of our society.
Welfare Reform Working Group
welfare-reform@pirateparty.org.uk
Welfare reform is an important topic at any time, but has become pressing as the UK's economy has deteriorated over the last two years, as such this working group has the vital job of delivering policy options that best provide social protections and deal with the issues we face in today's economically divided society.
How to get involved
To join a working group simply send an email with 'subscribe' as the subject, to the relevant address listed above.
If you feel you have the time to act as a group leader for any of the groups, I would ask you to contact campaigns@pirateparty.org.uk, with a subject of 'group leader' with an indication as to which group you wish to lead, as well as enough information to identify yourself as a party member (if you don't have a pirateparty.org.uk email address).
The group leaders and NEC will also be working to ensure that the work of the policy working groups is visible, groups may elect to use the forum, the wiki or any other public resource they feel appropriate to carry out their tasks and links to those areas will be made available for anyone to look at and discuss.
After the working groups
The working groups represent the penultimate element of the policy process. Once we have our collection of policies well developed and researched it will be time for the party as a whole to take a decision on how much of the programme it wishes to adopt as policy, I anticipate that this will occur in the new year and that with a bit of luck and a lot of hard work we will be discussing a new manifesto and many new positions and ideas at the 2012 conference in London.
Thanks you all for your input so far and I look forward to working further with you in the coming months.
Andy Halsall
Campaigns Officer
Pirate Party UK
+44 (0) 7505111705