The New Politics Network (NPN) was an independent political and campaigning

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, concerned with democratic renewal and popular participation in politics. It was founded as the successor to Democratic Left in 1999, and merged with

Charter 88 Charter 88 was a British pressure group that advocated constitutional and electoral reform and owes its origins to the lack of a written constitution. It began as a special edition of the ''New Statesman'' magazine in 1988 and it took its name fr ...

to form

Unlock Democracy Unlock Democracy is a British pressure group, based in London. The organisation campaigns for a more participatory democracy in Britain, founded upon a written constitution. Unlock Democracy works to promote democratic reform across the politica ...

in 2007.

Origin

The NPN was established in December 1999 following the winding up of Democratic Left, the legal successor organisation to the former

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...

. Its first director was Nina Temple. Democratic Left had briefly become the New Times Network, publishing a magazine, ''New Times'', until the summer of 1999, before it became the NPN.

Activities

The NPN had around 200 to 250 members. The NPN worked with a wide range of groups and individuals to provide a forum to look at emerging ideas in society. Its stated goal was to provide an independent and innovative debate on the future of politics. With the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust it funded the

tactical voting Strategic or tactical voting is voting in consideration of possible ballots cast by other voters in order to maximize one's satisfaction with the election's results. Gibbard's theorem shows that no voting system has a single "always-best" stra ...

website Tacticalvoter.net during the 2001 general election, although it was not involved with the 2005 campaign of the same name. While it was predicted by

Nick Cohen Nicholas Cohen (born 1961) is a British journalist, author, and political commentator. He was previously a columnist for '' The Observer'' and is currently one for ''The Spectator''. Following accusations of sexual harassment, he left ''The O ...

in the ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

'' in 2000 that NPN would merge with Make Votes Count and Charter 88, Nina Temple among others attempted to steer the organisation back towards its democratic socialist roots at the 2003 AGM. If this had been successful, the organisation may well have ended up as part of the

Compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with No ...

pressure group. The NPN owned an office block in

Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...

, north London, a property company called Rodell, and an office in the Midlands.

Merger

In November 2007 the NPN, by then directed by Peter Facey, merged with

to form a new campaigning group,

. The contribution of NPN to this merger was substantially financial, due to the dire situation in which Charter 88 had found itself. The NPN strapline "connecting people and politics" was however, retained.

References

* ''Background Information on the Proposed Merger between Charter 88 and the New Politics Network'' (jointly printed pamphlet, 2007)

External links

Unlock DemocracyNew Politics Net
on the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

Guardian profile
{{Authority control Political and economic think tanks based in the United Kingdom Communist Party of Great Britain

Origin

Activities

Merger

See also

References

External links