Whistle’s mission is to give access to the political process for anyone in the UK with an Internet connection - About Whistle
To whistle is to communicate, and that is exactly what we do.
Whistle was set up to offer a ‘one stop shop’ for political information, activism and debate. Whistle is a tool to help people learn about, challenge and change the politics of today. Users can connect with politicians, discuss issues and shape their community.
The website provides individual profiles on all currently elected UK politicians, allowing users to communicate directly with their MP’s through blogs and forums, create their own election campaigns and support the causes that matter to them.
Be it the local pub or parliament, people don’t always see eye to eye when it comes to politics. Whistle provides a forum for people with both similar and completely different views to find answers to everyday problems they face. We bridge the gap between politicians and local people by making politics open, clear and relevant.
So Whistle, and make sure others hear your tune. Register now.
Whistle’s founding values
Access to the Process
On average, people only participate in the democratic process once every four to five years. A typical MP’s surgery in the UK occurs approximately twice per month, inherently limiting the access of constituents to their MP. The average size of a constituency is 74,000. On the basis of two surgeries per month, an MP would be unable to have contact with more than 500 of their constituents. This clearly shows how the ‘ordinary person’ has limited access to the political process. Challenging and changing this situation is integral to Whistle’s vision. Whistle provides an elegant solution to this widespread problem by greatly facilitating access between people and politics.
Transparency
The UK MP’s expenses scandal of 2009 has shown the current lack of transparency within the political system. The resulting outcry and subsequent headline coverage of the scandal demonstrated the need for remedial action. One of Whistle’s core mission statements is to provide detailed policy and activity information through its researched politician database. The ability for users to voice these concerns and create campaigns to support causes that matter to them, or even run for election through the Get Elected! platform in order to ‘correct the system’ is a core functionality built into the website.
Levelling the Playing Field
Barack Obama raised $745m worth of donations from the Internet alone to win the US Presidential election in 2009. This exorbitant amount of money is seldom available to political candidates, creating a structural imbalance regarding access to political office. While the US represents the most extreme example of this, access to funding and marketing channels often play a role in the fortunes of candidates throughout the world. In uniting all politicians under one roof and providing a Get Elected! platform that is easy to use and cost effective, Whistle gives individual candidates and politicians greater visibility and more widespread appeal, allowing anyone to have the potential to get elected and be a force for change.
Meet the team
George Norman (CEO/founder/member of exec board)
The founder of Whistle and majority shareholder of the company, educated at Eton, and then College in London. George has worked on various political campaigns and with several charities and political organisations in the past.
Alexandra De Oliveira (COO/member of exec board)
After graduating from Durham in 1997, Alexandra joined J.P. Morgan’s Derivates Operations Team, where she was involved in the implementation of a new trade settlement system; later joining Dresdner Bank as Relationship Manager brokering and managing facilities in excess of $500 million for working capital and acquisition finance. After a five year stint in finance, she spent a number of years publishing socio-economic country reports with major newspapers around the world, responsible for raising advertising revenues of $1 million per year. Recently she joined the .com world as Associate Director at Investis, a tech company specialising in advising clients on their online corporate communications, where she managed profitable relationships such as Moneysupermarket.com, J Sainsbury and Babcock International. Alexandra’s multidisciplinary experience results in proactive and efficient day-to-day operations at Whistle.
Monica Ritz (CTO)
In 1994 Monica entered the digital and technology world as a senior developer for the Australian Submarine Corporation. After a 5 years stint, she became a Business Systems Analyst and then moved into Project Management, working for Compaq and DMR Consulting Group. In 2002 Monica moved to the UK joining BBC Worldwide for 4 years as a Project Manager. She then moved to Lbi, a leading worldwide digital agency delivering for clients such as London 2012, Formula 1 and Red Bull Racing. Before joining Politiscape she did one final stint with an advertising agency where she delivered campaigns for one of the biggest brands in the world, Proctor & Gamble. This past experience, coupled with Monica’s degrees in both Computer Science and Business, results in a very strong and well managed technical team at Whistle.
