Martin Partington: Spotlight on the Justice System

For some time I have been meaning to draw the attention of readers to the amazing Democracy Live website run by the BBC.

It can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/default.stm.

The reporting of events in Parliament in the print media has significantly reduced over the last decade, so people who might be interested in knowing what is going on in Parliament don’t have an easy regular channel of information.

At the same time, Parliament’s functions have been developing – for example more use of Select Committees, backbench debates. And there have been other very important developments resulting from the creation of devolved governments in Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland. As if this was not enough, we cannot forget that our governance also embraces developments in Europe and the institutions of the EU.

The BBC website offers instant access to all these different Parliaments, including videos of speeches, and live debates as well as introductions to the background to many contemporary issues.

I know that there is concern that people in general do not take politics as seriously as perhaps they should. However, the work of our representatives in Parliament is at the heart of our system of representative democracy. One should not become cynical about the work of our representative institutions without actually knowing what they do.

Any argument that people will find it difficult to find out what is going on in our various Parliaments is totally undermined by this exceptionally informative and richly resourced website – for which I think the BBC should be unreservedly praised – this is public interest broadcasting of the highest quality and value.