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Did you know that Palantir, a US technology company whose co-founder Peter Thiel has publicly said the NHS makes people sick, has been handed a £330 million contract to run NHS data infrastructure? That £60 million of that contract was awarded without any competitive process during Covid? A cross-party committee of MPs this week called it an unacceptable point of weakness and called for the contract to be cancelled. The committee’s recommendation is non-binding. The government can ignore it entirely. The public had no say in the original decision and will have no formal say in what happens next, despite it being their data and their NHS. If people are products of their system, the answer is to build a better system. That is what we are doing. houseofthepeople.com

The Prime Minister announced this week that the Cabinet Manual need to be updated. This is a document that sets out the rules governing how the government operates. The announcement came after sustained pressure from a parliamentary committee, not from the public. The Cabinet Manual governs how ministers behave, how decisions are made and how power is exercised in this country. Most people have never heard of it. None of them were asked whether it needed changing, what should be in it, or what the rules governing their government should look like. A document that defines the rules of power in Britain is being rewritten in a room the public has no access to, by a process the public has no part in, following pressure from a committee the public did not elect. House of The People was built for everyone who just read the above and thought: why do we not get a say in the key decisions that shape our lives?

Yesterday Parliament passed the second reading of the Health Bill, the legislation that will abolish NHS England and reshape how your healthcare is governed for years to come. This morning Parliament opened a call for written evidence from the public on the bill. You have a narrow window to submit written comments to a committee that may or may not act on them, before a deadline set by the same people who wrote the bill in the first place. This is the extent of your formal say in one of the most significant pieces of NHS legislation in a decade. We built House of The People so that every person in this country has a direct vote on the laws being passed in their name, not just once in a narrow window but every time Parliament votes. houseofthepeople.com

Parliament returned from recess this afternoon. The first item on the agenda is the second reading of the Health Bill, a piece of legislation that would abolish NHS England entirely and reshape how your healthcare is governed for years to come. The bill was introduced on 14 May - it was  written, briefed and brought to Parliament without a single public vote on whether it should exist. Today MPs debate its general principles. The public watch from the outside. The Armed Forces Bill, the Railways Bill, the Social Housing Bill and the Civil Aviation Bill are also on the agenda this week.  Five pieces of legislation covering your NHS, your military, your railways, your housing and your right to fly. All being debated and voted on this week, none of them with any direct public input. We built House of The People to give every citizen in this country a direct say in the laws that govern their lives, not just once every five years but every time Parliament votes. houseofthepeople.com

Parliament returns from recess tomorrow. The first major item on the agenda is the second reading of the Health Bill, a piece of legislation that will reshape how your NHS operates for years to come. It will be debated and voted on by MPs who were elected on a manifesto written before the bill existed, in a chamber where the Prime Minister is fighting for his political survival. The public will be watching from the outside with no direct input on any of it. We built House of The People because the technology to give every citizen a direct say in the decisions that shape their life has existed for years, and nobody had built it yet.

Did you know that a former Prime Minister published an essay on Tuesday accusing the current Labour government of prioritising internal politics over competent governance? Prediction markets currently give a 50% chance of a Labour leadership contest by the end of June. The public has no formal say in whether that happens, who stands, or who wins. Tony Blair, Andy Burnham and Keir Starmer are debating who should lead this country entirely within the walls of Westminster and the pages of political newspapers. Nobody is asking you. House of The People was built for everyone who just read that and thought: why is nobody asking us?

The Treasury is currently making a surplus of over £600 million from student loans taken out by young people who were told the terms when they signed, and then had those terms changed afterwards. 52,000 of them told a parliamentary committee this week exactly how they feel about it. The committee chair said the message had landed. What happens next will be decided entirely within Westminster. The 52,000 people who responded have no direct input on the outcome. This is what passes for public engagement in the current system: a survey whose results are noted, filed, and acted upon or ignored entirely at the discretion of the people who caused the problem in the first place. If people are products of their system, the answer is to build a better system. houseofthepeople.com

The Public Accounts Committee released a report last week that found government departments wrote off around £6.6 billion during the 2024-25 financial year. That figure covers spending that failed to deliver its intended purpose or produced no value for taxpayers whatsoever. The public can read about it. They can be angry about it. But there is no formal mechanism for them to hold anyone accountable for it, to demand a different outcome, or to have any direct say in how public money gets spent in the first place. House of The People was built for everyone who just read that and thought: who exactly is accountable to us for losing it?

Did you know that the government's digital ID strategy was described yesterday by the Home Affairs Committee as doomed to fail before it even launched? The Foreign Affairs Committee accused ministers of giving a woefully inadequate response to their own report. Both of these parliamentary committees exist specifically to hold the government to account, yet neither has any mechanism to involve the public in its findings. We built House of The People because consulting the public should be where policy begins.

Today the government set out its legislative agenda for the year ahead. It did so on a day when the Prime Minister’s own MPs are calling for his resignation following last week’s election results. Parliament will spend the next twelve months debating and passing these bills. The public will have no direct input on any of it. That is what House of the People is here to change.

When your MP votes in Parliament, they are not always voting for you. Party whips exist to ensure MPs vote with the leadership regardless of what their constituents want. House of the People shows you exactly when that happens. houseofthepeople.com

Trust in politicians is at a record low in Britain. That is not a coincidence. It is what happens when the gap between what the public wants and what Parliament does goes unmeasured and unchallenged. House of the People measures this gap and publishes on every single bill since 2006. Your voice matters, make it heard at houseofthepeople.com

Thanks @ReinersProject for a great article that succinctly summarises what houseofthepeople.com does and what we’re about. We especially loved the section highlighting the meaning behind the logo!

Reiners Project @ReinersProject

a month ago

House of The People: An Experiment in Direct Democracy House of The People (@HoTPOfficial) lets voters judge the same bills Parliament votes on in real-time, then compares public results with MPs, Lords, parties, while cataloging laws and statutory instrument. It makes

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Wales votes today. 96 Senedd seats up for grabs under a brand-new electoral system. See every candidate, every constituency, every regional list, all in one place. houseofthepeople.com/elections

Scotland votes today. 129 MSPs up for election. Every candidate, every constituency, every regional list, all in one place. houseofthepeople.com/elections

Local elections are being held today for thousands of council seats across the UK. These votes decide who runs your local services for the next 4 years: • Social care • Housing & planning • Roads & potholes • Bin collections & recycling • Parks & libraries It’s also the first major verdict on the current government. Stay informed on which candidates are up for election in your local area: houseofthepeople.com/elections

Elections all across the UK tomorrow. houseofthepeople.com/elections to see all the options where you live.

MPs are whipped to vote with their party. Lobbyists have direct access to legislation. Donors fund the people making decisions about your life. None of this is a conspiracy. It is all entirely legal. And none of it involves asking you. Make your voice heard at: houseofthepeople.com

Anything you want to know about your MP, you can find on houseofthepeople.com From how aligned their voting is with yours, to every payment they've received in office. All in one place: houseofthepeople.com/mps

A Prime Minister drawing up plans to block any inquiry into his own conduct. It is a slippery slope when those in power decide what scrutiny their actions are subject to. The public deserve a direct say in how we are governed. This is what House of The People is building.