Welcome to openDemocracyUK, the British section of openDemocracy.

openDemocracyUK addresses the unfolding crisis in Britain's democracy, its root causes and the injustices which stem from it. We stand for democracy, liberty, justice and economic empowerment, and we provide a platform for citizens and movements to expose what's going on and work out how to change it.

• We work to investigate and illuminate the crisis of democracy in Britain and analyse how its failings can be redressed.
• We do so with openDemocracy, enriched by its international readership and contributors.
• We actively counter the tribalism and sectarianism that so distorts political argument and we encourage original debate, the best form of education there is.
• We bring together outsider voices and diverse opinions.
• We support and promote deep investigative work exposing the gap between official rhetoric and practice.
• We publish on and from all the British nations while questioning the nature of the UK.
• We engage with fundamental ideas and concepts.
• We explore the cultural, economic, political and constitutional roots of the democratic crisis - from the media to corporate power - and expose its day-to-day realities.
• Untrammeled by party political loyalties, we ask how we as citizens can secure our liberty, human rights, self-government and real democracy.

Our range of forms — short posts, investigative comment, eye-witness reports, debate pages, video, dossiers and books — enables us to respond swiftly and interrogate issues deeply. We encourage good and creative writing.

Our journalism, authority and contacts can give momentum to campaigns for change and shape to protest:  we helped originate and co-sponsored the Convention on Modern Liberty; we convened and supported the editors of Fight Back! A Reader on the Winter of Protest and published it as an e-book; the campaign journalism of End Child Detention Now has rippled out from its authoritative openDemocracyUK reports.

As traditional publishing models move towards extinction, we respond with a vibrant, combative, intergenerational model, that exploits the democratic potential opened up by the internet. We practice 'openness', rather than grasp at stultifying ‘neutrality’: we are clear about our views, argue with others honestly and provide a platform for exchange.

The only truly free press is one paid for by its readers. You can make a donation to support our work here.