Charter 2010

How charters work

Charters give the public who elect government officials a way of holding them to account when they are working for the rights of the country. Charters can be as detailed or as simple as required by the people who are following them. Regardless of what your political affiliation is, any political party or organising worth its salt will have a charter that you can read to learn about what it does.

The advantages of charters for political parties

With the UK having a coalition government for the first time for many years, the concept of charters has crept back into the public consciousness. Here are some of the benefits of charters in politics:

-Keeps everyone on the straight and narrow: Political parties are run like their own version of the ancient Roman Senate. While there is a leader, there are also people who follow that leader and charters ensure that everyone plays by the rules. By having a list of goals and a vision, this is how political parties can avoid the emergence of egos and attitudes in politics because people know that they cannot go against the charter.

-Informs the public: Charters are excellent in that they work as a checklist to inform the public on the identity of the political party. As the rise of the coalition government has shown, people are looking for more transparency from their politicians. Charters help people to see their politicians for who they really are.

-Diversity of political ideas: The good thing about charters is that they allow diversity of ideas to flow from within the parties. Political parties unite under one umbrella but naturally there can be many different opinions that are floating around. If you are a voter who is thinking about the next round of elections whether they are national or local, be sure to check out a charter that has a mixture of cohesive ideas that flow together.