We work to illuminate and redress the crisis in democracy here in Britain.

We do so with openDemocracy, enriched by its international readership and contributors.

Our journalism, authority and contacts can give momentum to campaigns for change and shape to protest:  we helped originate and co-sponsored the Convention on Modern Liberty; we convened and supported the editors of Fight Back! A Reader on the Winter of Protest and published it as an e-book; the campaign journalism of End Child Detention Now has rippled out from its authoritative OurKingdom reports.

We actively counter the tribalism and sectarianism that so distorts political argument and we encourage original debate, the best form of education there is.

We bring together outsider voices and diverse opinions.

We support and promote deep investigative work exposing the gap between official rhetoric and practice.

We publish on and from all the UK nations while questioning the nature of Britain.

We engage with fundamental ideas and concepts.

We explore the cultural, economic, political and constitutional roots of the democratic crisis - from the media to corporate power - and expose its day-to-day realities.

Untrammeled by party political loyalties, we ask how we as citizens can achieve self-government and real democracy.

Our range of forms — short posts, investigative comment, eye-witness reports, debate pages, video, dossiers and books — enables us to respond swiftly and interrogate issues deeply.

As traditional publishing models move towards extinction, we respond with a vibrant, combative, intergenerational model, that exploits the democratic potential opened up by the internet. We practice 'openness', rather than grasp at stultifying ‘neutrality’: we are clear about our views, argue with others honestly and provide a platform for exchange.