Back to dashboard

Source directory

The public feeds Plain Politics uses now, plus the feeds to review before adding new features.

7
Used now
6
To review
10
Data areas

Starter path

0 of 4 explored

Small steps, real understanding, your pace. Everything stays open, and progress is saved only in this browser.

Find your MPLearn a termRead a voteOpen a record

Used now

Hooked now

State of the parties

UK Parliament Members API

Access
Open official API endpoint. Already called server-side.
Can support
Home dashboard, Parliament page, Party profile factual panels

Records

  • Party name, abbreviation and official API colour
  • Current Commons seat count by party
  • Gender counts by party where returned
  • Source retrieval URL, snapshot hash and excerpt path

Good first source family because it is official, structured and stable enough for typed contracts.

Hooked now

Current Commons members

UK Parliament Members API

Access
Open official API endpoint. Already called server-side.
Can support
MP directory, Constituency pages, Party membership history

Records

  • Member ID and display name
  • Current party
  • Current constituency
  • Membership start date
  • Member profile and thumbnail links where returned

Useful for the first MP and constituency views, but full coverage needs paging and ingestion jobs.

Hooked now

Recent Commons divisions

UK Parliament Commons Votes API

Access
Open official API endpoint. Already called server-side.
Can support
Recent votes widget, Party vote record pages, Policy timeline

Records

  • Division ID and division number
  • Division title and date
  • Aye and No totals
  • Publication updated timestamp
  • Member vote lists for deeper detail pages

Vote meaning still needs plain-English context from bill, motion or Hansard sources.

Hooked now

Upcoming parliamentary business

UK Parliament What's On API

Access
Open official JSON endpoint. Already called server-side.
Can support
Upcoming dates widget, Parliament calendar, Bill and policy timelines

Records

  • Event ID
  • Start and end dates
  • Start and end times where returned
  • House, chamber or committee type
  • Category
  • Description
  • Member names where returned
  • Bill ID, bill name and bill page link where returned
  • Cancellation date where returned

Good for scheduled parliamentary business, but election dates and government announcements need separate sources.

Hooked now

Postcode to constituency and MP

postcodes.io and UK Parliament Members API

Access
Open public API plus official Parliament location search. Called client-side from /my-area so the raw postcode is not sent to the app server.
Can support
Beginner start here, My area page, Constituency pages

Records

  • Normalized postcode
  • Westminster parliamentary constituency
  • Constituency code
  • Local authority and ward where available
  • Current MP, party and Commons membership start date
  • Source URLs checked

Postcodes are sensitive location data in practice. The v1 lookup is transient and does not yet create server-side snapshots or excerpts.

Hooked now

MP public record starter

UK Parliament Members API and Commons Votes API

Access
Open official API endpoints. Called client-side from /my-area after an MP is found.
Can support
My area page, MP detail pages, Beginner civic journey

Records

  • Recent member votes
  • Division title, date and vote totals
  • Written questions where exposed by member endpoints
  • Member activity caveat
  • Source URLs checked

This shows public parliamentary activity, not automatic proof of local impact. It does not yet create server-side snapshots or excerpts.

Hooked now

Political glossary and traditions

UK Parliament and Electoral Commission

Access
Official public webpages. Initial glossary page is statically curated from them.
Can support
Glossary page, Inline help, Beginner civic journey

Records

  • Term and category
  • Plain-English definition
  • Why the term matters
  • Official source URL
  • Related product pages for inline help

Definitions should be simplified carefully and reviewed when official source wording changes.

To review

Candidate

Bills and legislation

UK Parliament Bills

Access
Official Parliament source. Treat as candidate API or structured page ingestion.
Can support
Policy timelines, Manifesto promise follow-through, Legislation explainer pages

Records

  • Bill title and bill ID
  • Current stage
  • Stage dates
  • Sponsor or responsible member where available
  • Bill documents and explanatory notes

Needs endpoint mapping and source-span extraction before summaries are trusted.

Candidate

Hansard debates

UK Parliament Hansard

Access
Official Parliament source. Likely structured page ingestion first.
Can support
Policy evidence panels, Member activity pages, Issue explainers

Records

  • Debate title
  • Sitting date
  • Speaker/member
  • Contribution text
  • Column reference
  • Topic tags where available

Debate text is rich but noisy; it needs careful excerpt selection and neutral framing.

Needs review

Political finance registers

Electoral Commission

Access
Official public search and export surface. Needs terms and automation review before ingestion.
Can support
Donation tables, Party money charts, Donor history pages

Records

  • Donation, loan, spending or account reference
  • Recipient regulated entity
  • Donor or supplier name
  • Value
  • Accepted, received and reported dates
  • Donation type and donor status
  • Reporting period

High-value but more ingestion-fragile than Parliament APIs because the public surface is search/export oriented.

Needs review

Party manifestos and policy pages

Political parties

Access
Party websites, PDFs and archived snapshots. Requires compliant crawling or manual curation.
Can support
Party profiles, Policy compare, Plain-English manifesto summaries

Records

  • Manifesto title and publication date
  • Party
  • Policy area
  • Quoted excerpt
  • Page or section label
  • Change diff against prior snapshot

This is essential for plain-English party positions, but every summary must map to exact source excerpts.

Candidate

No. 10 GOV.UK activity

GOV.UK / Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street

Access
Official GOV.UK Atom feed. Easy to poll, but it is activity/news rather than future diary.
Can support
Government activity feed, Recent statements, Policy timeline context

Records

  • Entry title
  • Publication/update timestamp
  • Document URL
  • Summary
  • Content type by URL path where inferable

Useful for Prime Minister statements, speeches and releases after publication; not a reliable source for unpublished future No. 10 diary dates.

Needs review

Polling and popularity

Pollsters and polling disclosure sources

Access
Pollster pages, full tables and secondary trackers. No central free API confirmed yet.
Can support
Polling charts, Momentum labels, Popularity tables

Records

  • Pollster and commissioner
  • Fieldwork dates
  • Publication date
  • Sample size and population
  • Mode and geography
  • Question wording
  • Party vote share
  • Movement and uncertainty caveat

Keep out of the critical path until source access, licensing and metadata are clean.

What these sources can support

Parties

The backbone for plain-English party profile pages.

  • Name, abbreviation, colour and official website
  • Current Commons seats
  • Current MPs and constituencies
  • Manifesto and policy source links
  • Coverage state and last checked date

Policies and manifestos

The core compare experience: what each party says, shown in the same structure.

  • Policy area and subtopic
  • Party position summary
  • Original excerpt
  • Source tier
  • Change status
  • No verified source state

My area

The beginner on-ramp: start from a postcode and explain who represents the user in plain English.

  • Postcode-to-constituency result
  • Current MP, party and membership start date
  • Recent votes and written questions
  • Upcoming relevant Parliament business
  • Local relevance label and coverage gaps

Glossary

The shared vocabulary layer that helps beginners understand political jargon and traditions.

  • Term and category
  • Plain-English definition
  • Why it matters
  • Official source URL
  • Related pages for inline explanation

Polling and popularity

Popularity tracking without turning uncertainty into false certainty.

  • Pollster, client and fieldwork dates
  • Sample size, population and method
  • Question wording and full tables
  • Vote share by party
  • Rolling average
  • Movement threshold and caveat

Parliament

What Parliament is doing and how parties or members vote.

  • Division, vote and member IDs
  • Vote title and date
  • Aye and No counts
  • Member-level votes
  • Bill stage
  • Debate excerpts

Money

Political finance and public-money context from official registers.

  • Donation, loan or spending reference
  • Donor, recipient and donor type
  • Amount
  • Accepted, received and reported dates
  • Reporting period
  • Source record URL

Upcoming dates

Forward-looking dates for sitting days, parliamentary business and civic deadlines.

  • Event title or description
  • Event date
  • Start and end times
  • House, chamber, committee or institution
  • Category
  • Bill link where relevant
  • Cancellation or change status
  • Last checked timestamp

Elections and constituencies

Maps, local pages and election result context.

  • Constituency ID and name
  • Boundary geometry
  • Current MP
  • Candidates
  • Vote share, majority and turnout
  • Election result source

Source quality

The audit trail that keeps the public pages honest.

  • Publisher, URL and source tier
  • Retrieved and published timestamps
  • Snapshot hash
  • Parser version
  • Freshness state
  • Review and correction history