10,248 candidates are standing in the English local elections this year.

Which ward has the longest ballot paper?
Where are the parties strongest - and weakest?
Are independents more common in the North or South?

Answers in our latest blog: democracyclub.org.uk/blog/2024/04/2…

Anyone can add our interactive election lookup to their own website for free: democracyclub.org.uk/projects/elect…

Not had a chance to look at this yet, but super exciting tools and data from mySociety & The Climate Coalition, especially in advance of the local and general election. Looking forward to them unpacking it all on 9th May too!

Big climate wins have to happen at the local level. The Local Intelligence Hub can help ✨✨✨

👀Looks like wasn't the only person to get this video on my feed yesterday...

It's got 260k views and 20k likes in the space of 24 hours

tiktok.com/@politically_c…

🚨 Big TheyWorkForYou update 🚨

🎯 MPs' voting summaries now focus on 'action, not words'
🗣️ Decisions taken “on the nod” without a vote included for the first time
🆕 New policy groups including Water Quality and Voter ID

🕵️‍♂️ Did you know that our Open Access tool makes submitting FOI requests on ministerial meetings easy?

For any published meeting that ministers have had since 2012, you can use our FOI request templates through WhatDoTheyKnow.

Try it out here ⤵️ openaccess.transparency.org.uk

Thread on an update to TheyWorkForYou voting summaries twitter.com/mySociety/stat…

Some people will have you believe that voting records don't matter. We think they do, but we want to be thoughtful about it.

Loads of work has gone into this update. Have a read of the blog, see how your MP's page has changed, and let us know what you think 👇

Well how else do you spend your Thursday lunchtimes? No better way than watching Julia Cushion demonstrating what superpowers The Local Intelligence Hub can bring you. Sign up for this free online sesh, hosted by The Democracy Network, at lu.ma/gl01i6js

We've got a big new update going live on localintelligencehub.com this Thursday, but in the meantime, how about a small one?

The Local Intelligence Hub now tells you if your MP is standing down at the next election, thanks to data from Commons Library.

If you want to see what I think is one of the worst, and likely straight up unlawful, responses to a legitimate FOI request I have ever seen, have a look at how Wadham College responded to one student journalist...

cherwell.org/2024/04/21/oxf…

Great work from PDS to improve how the register of data interests is captured, will have some more on @theyworkforyou's plans to build on this in a few weeks pds.blog.parliament.uk/2024/04/17/cha…

Tick this off your list: TICTeC tickets! ✅

ICYMI:

Last year the government pledged £6 million to tackle air pollution; local authorities spent time and resources to apply; 2 months ago they were told whether they were successful (and presumably planned rollout on this)… and today the government has withdrawn the money.

Have you moved house since the last time you voted?

If so, you gotta register to vote at your new address!

🚨 today's the last day! 🚨

gov.uk/register-to-vo…