Public Whip
Encyclopedia
The Public Whip is a parliamentary informatics
project that analyses and publishes the voting history of MPs in the Parliament of the United Kingdom
.
It was developed by Francis Irving
and Julian Todd
following the 18 March 2003 Parliamentary Approval for the invasion of Iraq
as a tool to record which MPs had defied their party's whip
long after the information had become effectively inaccessible for reference.
On 1 August 2011 Irving and Todd handed control of the site to a new team.
The project is loosely affiliated to mySociety
's TheyWorkForYou
with which it shares a large part of the same parliamentary parsing code-base.
New Media Award for "civic renewal".
The site has never received a grant from any funding body and remains entirely paid for by its creators, including server costs and bandwidth.
, and then later rewritten in Python
. The main process downloads the daily transcripts from the online Hansard
, matches and assigns IDs to the names of MPs, and saves them into XML files. These are later uploaded into a mySQL
table and viewed through PHP
webpages.
At the end of 2003 the project was extended to read the archive of Parliamentary Written Answers. Following a request from mySociety
, the Parliamentary Parser was expanded to include House of Commons and Westminster Hall debates, and finally the House of Lords, which are all more or less in the same format. It is now maintained by them to provide the data to their TheyWorkForYou
website.
In anticipation of preparing a version of it again for the next general election, Julian has distributed leaflets and tried out variations of the site at the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, 2008
and the 2008 Glenrothes by-election.
currently does programming work for mySociety
, most recently WhatDoTheyKnow
, a site that provides an on-line interface to the Freedom of Information Act 2000
.
Julian Todd
has extended the concept of parsing transcripts for speeches and votes to the General Assembly
and Security Council
of the United Nations
with a website called undemocracy.com established in 2007. The work motivated following the discovery of the transcripts on-line during research into the application of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267
in his home town of Liverpool.
Parliamentary informatics
Parliamentary informatics is the application of information technology to the documentation of legislative activity. The principal areas of concern are the provision, in a form conveniently readable to humans or machines, of information and statistics about:...
project that analyses and publishes the voting history of MPs in the Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
.
It was developed by Francis Irving
Francis Irving
Francis Irving is a 36 year old British computer programmer and activist for freedom of information.Francis Irving developed TortoiseCVS.He co-founded Public Whip with Julian Todd and became a developer of the affiliated TheyWorkForYou website, a project which parses raw Hansard data to track how...
and Julian Todd
Julian Todd
Julian Todd is a British computer programmer and activist for freedom of information. He works in Liverpool.He was inventor and co-founder of Public Whip with Francis Irving. And also the affiliated TheyWorkForYou website, a project which parses raw Hansard data to track how members vote in the UK...
following the 18 March 2003 Parliamentary Approval for the invasion of Iraq
18 March 2003 Parliamentary approval for the invasion of Iraq
The Parliamentary approval for the invasion of Iraq was given by the elected members of the British House of Commons to Tony Blair's government on the eve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq in a series of two votes on 18 March 2003.-Constitutional background:...
as a tool to record which MPs had defied their party's whip
Chief Whip
The Chief Whip is a political office in some legislatures assigned to an elected member whose task is to administer the whipping system that ensures that members of the party attend and vote as the party leadership desires.-The Whips Office:...
long after the information had become effectively inaccessible for reference.
On 1 August 2011 Irving and Todd handed control of the site to a new team.
The project is loosely affiliated to mySociety
MySociety
mySociety is an e-democracy project of the UK-based registered charity named UK Citizens Online Democracy, that aims to build "socially focussed tools with offline impacts". It was founded by Tom Steinberg in September 2003, and started activity after receiving a £250,000 grant in September 2004...
's TheyWorkForYou
TheyWorkForYou
TheyWorkForYou is a website run by mySociety, a project of registered charity UK Citizens Online Democracy, and is a tool for political campaigners and those interested in the Parliamentary activities of UK MPs, Lords, and Northern Ireland MLAs....
with which it shares a large part of the same parliamentary parsing code-base.
Awards and funding
In 2004 the Public Whip won the New StatesmanNew Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
New Media Award for "civic renewal".
The site has never received a grant from any funding body and remains entirely paid for by its creators, including server costs and bandwidth.
Technology
Originally the software was written in PerlPerl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
, and then later rewritten in Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
. The main process downloads the daily transcripts from the online Hansard
Hansard
Hansard is the name of the printed transcripts of parliamentary debates in the Westminster system of government. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard, an early printer and publisher of these transcripts.-Origins:...
, matches and assigns IDs to the names of MPs, and saves them into XML files. These are later uploaded into a mySQL
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
table and viewed through PHP
PHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
webpages.
At the end of 2003 the project was extended to read the archive of Parliamentary Written Answers. Following a request from mySociety
MySociety
mySociety is an e-democracy project of the UK-based registered charity named UK Citizens Online Democracy, that aims to build "socially focussed tools with offline impacts". It was founded by Tom Steinberg in September 2003, and started activity after receiving a £250,000 grant in September 2004...
, the Parliamentary Parser was expanded to include House of Commons and Westminster Hall debates, and finally the House of Lords, which are all more or less in the same format. It is now maintained by them to provide the data to their TheyWorkForYou
TheyWorkForYou
TheyWorkForYou is a website run by mySociety, a project of registered charity UK Citizens Online Democracy, and is a tool for political campaigners and those interested in the Parliamentary activities of UK MPs, Lords, and Northern Ireland MLAs....
website.
Publicity
The website has occasionally been cited in newspaper articles, and is sometimes referred to in election material. It has also been used to provide voting analysis to citizens during elections.Activism
An election quiz which advised voters of which party or incumbent candidate most closely matched their political opinions (according to the Parliamentary vote) was on the site for the 2005 General election and received over 10,000 hits.In anticipation of preparing a version of it again for the next general election, Julian has distributed leaflets and tried out variations of the site at the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, 2008
Crewe and Nantwich by-election, 2008
The Crewe and Nantwich by-election, 2008 was a parliamentary by-election held on 22 May 2008, for the British House of Commons constituency of Crewe and Nantwich, in Cheshire, England...
and the 2008 Glenrothes by-election.
Creators
Francis IrvingFrancis Irving
Francis Irving is a 36 year old British computer programmer and activist for freedom of information.Francis Irving developed TortoiseCVS.He co-founded Public Whip with Julian Todd and became a developer of the affiliated TheyWorkForYou website, a project which parses raw Hansard data to track how...
currently does programming work for mySociety
MySociety
mySociety is an e-democracy project of the UK-based registered charity named UK Citizens Online Democracy, that aims to build "socially focussed tools with offline impacts". It was founded by Tom Steinberg in September 2003, and started activity after receiving a £250,000 grant in September 2004...
, most recently WhatDoTheyKnow
WhatDoTheyKnow
WhatDoTheyKnow.com is a website run by the registered UK Citizens Online Democracy which allows anyone to make a UK Freedom of Information request in public. The site acts as a permanent public archive of FOI requests made through it.Around 15% of requests to UK Central Government are made...
, a site that provides an on-line interface to the Freedom of Information Act 2000
Freedom of Information Act 2000
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 is an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that creates a public "right of access" to information held by public authorities. It is the implementation of freedom of information legislation in the United Kingdom on a national level...
.
Julian Todd
Julian Todd
Julian Todd is a British computer programmer and activist for freedom of information. He works in Liverpool.He was inventor and co-founder of Public Whip with Francis Irving. And also the affiliated TheyWorkForYou website, a project which parses raw Hansard data to track how members vote in the UK...
has extended the concept of parsing transcripts for speeches and votes to the General Assembly
United Nations General Assembly
For two articles dealing with membership in the General Assembly, see:* General Assembly members* General Assembly observersThe United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation...
and Security Council
United Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...
of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
with a website called undemocracy.com established in 2007. The work motivated following the discovery of the transcripts on-line during research into the application of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267, adopted unanimously on October 15, 1999, after recalling resolutions 1189 , 1193 and 1214 on the situation in Afghanistan, the Council established a sanctions regime to cover individuals and entities associated with Al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden and/or...
in his home town of Liverpool.