Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Politics of the United Kingdom

Politics of the United Kingdom

PROJECT

Devoted to improving coverage of British politics on Wikipedia.

Categories · Featured content · Templates

This is the talk page for WikiProject Politics of the United Kingdom.
Shortcut WT:POLUK Place notices here about UK politics articles, and you will surely receive helpful support from interested editors! Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic. Please sign and date your posts by typing four tildes (`~~~~`). New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Ask questions, get answers. Be polite, and welcoming to new users Assume good faith Avoid personal attacks For disputes, seek dispute resolution
Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

Archives

This page has archives. Sections older than 30 days may be automatically archived by when more than 5 sections are present.

Customs Union[edit]

There is an article United Kingdom–Crown Dependencies Customs Union does this fall under the scope of politics of the United Kingdom?ChefBear01 (talk) 19:33, 29 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Merge discussion at 2024 Scottish government crisis[edit]

You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:2024 Scottish government crisis, which is within the scope of this WikiProject. There is a proposal to merge this article into Bute House Agreement. Clyde1998 (talk) 10:28, 30 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

UK political parties template getting too big[edit]

Template:Political parties in the United Kingdom is used on a large number of articles. It currently lists 16 parties with Parliamentary/Assembly representation and another 25 without. However, following Thursday's elections, we should be adding another 8 minor parties under the current criteria. Are these rules too inclusive? Is the template getting too big? Please input at Template_talk:Political_parties_in_the_United_Kingdom#Crisis. Bondegezou (talk) 09:30, 5 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Input requested: Keir Starmer Edit Request - Kate Osamor suspension[edit]

Hello, just want to get some input at Talk:Keir Starmer#Edit Request - Kate Osamor suspension. Thanks. SoThisIsPeter (talk) 19:42, 6 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Portsmouth Independents Party[edit]

Would someone from this WikiProject mind taking a look at Portsmouth Independents Party and assessing it per WP:NORG? It was just created directly in the mainspace the other day by a relatively new account and doesn't appear to ever been assessed. -- Marchjuly (talk) 01:58, 22 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

2024 GENERAL ELECTION ANNOUNCEMENT[edit]

The Prime Minister has announced that the 58th Parliament of the United Kingdom will be dissolved on 30th May and a general election will be held on 4th July.

Veteran members of this WikiProject will be a familiar with an issue that I have raised at many prior elections - upon dissolution of the legislative body its members lose their status as such and thus can no longer use the relevant post-nominals (e.g. MP, MSP, MLA, AM). This requires us as Wikipedians to spend a great many hours frantically editing hundreds of pages to remove any reference to incumbency at the start of the campaign... then a load more hours adding them back in again after the results come in.

In 2021, in advance of the Senedd election, I came up with a solution that seemed to be reasonably well received - a flair that could be put at the top of all relevant biographies for the duration of the election period and then removed afterwards. This gives all necessary disclaimers and avoids us having to dig deep into the details of each individual article to make multiple edits. I have devised one for the upcoming election and would like to see it enacted when the time comes.

Obviously this only needs to be used for those incumbents who are seeking re-election. Those who are stepping down can go straight to proper rewrites. Robin S. Taylor (talk) 21:41, 22 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not many people will understand that though - ordinal numbers for Parliaments are not generally used in the UK. It is the 2019-2024 Parliament. -- DeFacto (talk). 22:04, 22 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Good point: remove "58th", add 2024 to date. Otherwise a useful idea. 05:48, 23 May 2024 (UTC) PamD 05:48, 23 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm probably picking hairs, but that sounds a bit patronising to say "not many people will understand that." Particularly given I support the clearer dates based wording. Rankersbo (talk) 06:57, 23 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I've removed the ordinal and just left it at "the British House of Commons". Since originally posting this, I have come up with another idea: I can temporarily change the wording to something like "The subject of this article is currently a member of the British House of Commons, which is due to dissolve on 30th May in advance of the general election on 4th July." so that we can do all the work of putting the tags on MPs' articles before the day of dissolution and then simply revert the wording on the template the minute the royal proclamation is read out. Robin S. Taylor (talk) 21:28, 23 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps "be dissolved" rather than "dissolve", and remove the "th"s from the dates per MOS:NUM. PamD 06:16, 24 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This seems like overkill to me. Why not just have a short template on the not-being-an-MP thing? Bondegezou (talk) 08:28, 24 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Bondegezou, @Robin S. Taylor: Agreed. Perhaps something like:

Note: The subject of this article is standing for re-election to the British House of Commons. They will not be an MP once Parliament is dissolved. This article may be out of date.

… changed to:

Note: The subject of this article is standing for re-election to the British House of Commons. They ceased to be an MP when Parliament was dissolved. This article may be out of date.

… once we reach dissolution on 30 May? Let's not add lots of calls-to-action and balance them out with lots of words of caution. James F. (talk) 20:48, 24 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That shortened wording would probably be enough. It's not really meant as a "call to action" as it's for the benefit of the non-registered reader instead of the editors. The important thing is that we succinctly get across the point that the subject is not an incumbent MP even if the body text, infobox, succession boxes etc still say so. Robin S. Taylor (talk) 20:56, 24 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Absolutely, totally agreed that it's much better to put in a note than try to rush to edit ~500 articles to say they're not MPs, and then (assuming polls are right) undoing the effect of ~75% of those edits. James F. (talk) 21:11, 24 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest that the 30 May 2024 date is worth including in both versions. PamD 22:33, 24 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It occurs to me that we could also do to have similar flairs on the articles about Parliament itself and the major parties contesting the election (as the "state of the parties" information will obviously be in limbo). Robin S. Taylor (talk) 21:26, 24 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Robin S. Taylor: Good plan. Probably just a bespoke inline edit, rather than a full template, given we'll only want to place it on ~10 articles. James F. (talk) 21:37, 24 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Let’s not get carried away with a fairly pedantic point. Yes, technically, they all stop being MPs, but it’s not a distinction reliable sources generally bother with. Reliable sources happily talk of a sitting or defending MP, etc. Bondegezou (talk) 22:11, 24 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

End dates[edit]

I was going to come and ask when dissolution is. For those MPs who have announced stepping down can we put end dates of 30 May 2024, or do we need to wait until candidate lists are announced with them absent to do that? Do any re-writes need to wait unti 1st June? Rankersbo (talk) 06:57, 23 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This was discussed a few years ago - yes, terms end on the day of dissolution. (talk) 07:52, 23 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That's not the question I asked though. I mean it's good and relevent info, don't get me wrong and thanks for reminding us.

What I was actually asking was can we start to edit MPs end dates now, or do we need to wait until after the 30th or when nominations close?

Rankersbo (talk) 07:56, 23 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Rankersbo: Thinks it fine to add an end date for MPs who've said they've stepped down, even though there is that chance they will go back on what they said and they will still be nominated by their parties. I think this because officially they are no longer MPs after dissolution, so an end date will still technically be accurate. So it's not the end of the world if for a short time an end date is included when in fact they are about to be re-nominated. --Ted Edwards 15:16, 23 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

How to get get some help with 2024 GENERAL ELECTION page[edit]

I was wondering how to get peoples attention to discussion on the talk page on the current election talk page. Its in relational to the Predictions 4/3/2/1 before the vote. I would like a wide range of opinions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:2024_United_Kingdom_general_election#Predictions........_before_the_vote Crazyseiko (talk) 20:27, 24 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]