Lever
This is the
citizen era
Make your voice count
Lever helps you drive the change you want to see. It turbo-charges activism, from petitions to demos, by leveraging collective action.
But there's a bigger picture and Lever has a part to play in that too. Our roles as citizens has never been more pressing.
We're seeing a collapse in faith that our political and democratic systems can deliver for us. We've become detached from the people who are supposed to represent us.
They make decisions often at odds with what people really want, influenced by unelected and unaccountable forces – lobbyists, big money donors and unrepresentative party memberships. They're stuck in a dysfunctional electoral system that encourages short-term thinking and turns politics into a narrow competition for power. Collaboration, compromise and compassion seem impossible.
Politics needs citizens.
When the people we elect to represent us can see and hear us every day it becomes easier for them to understand and respond to our needs. We make the power of our vote an everyday reality, not just a brief moment at election time.
We can build more meaningful connections with our representatives. We become too many and too loud to ignore when we pull together.
Verified constituent status
Lever uses your constituency – where the parliamentary vote is your main lever of democratic power – as the unit for aggregating action.
When the Lever app launches it will verify you by asking for your postcode and an email address. The postcode identifies your constituency and other jurisdictions such as local authority or council ward.
The email is used to send a confirmation link to reduce the use of automated responses such as bots. Users can also opt to allow email to be used to provide updates and insights from the Lever platform.
This level of verification is similar to that used by the Parliament Petition website.
Placeholder heading in here
Lever's ambition is to introduce a more thorough verification process to ensure the platform is as truly representative as possible. Using some additional identity credentials, such as photos of a passport or driving licence, along with proof of address – similar to the way online banks onboard customers – would enable a stronger Verified Constituent status. It would mean each constituent could have only one account and would further reduce opportunities for misuse of the platform.
This would obviously require careful consideration of user privacy and data protection. We will consult users and test options to make sure we get the balance right. We will explore the best tech solutions that minimise the data we hold and process. Ideally, verification would happen locally on a user's device.
Ultimately, some degree of verification that a person is who they say they are is needed for participation in anything that's important. Protecting and improving democracy is about as important as it gets.
Lever is committed to building a platform for public good and we will take expert advice on all aspects of privacy, data protection and security.
We are
When we pull together
What is Lever?
Lever is a non-profit social enterprise. It is independent and non-partisan.
Lever has a simple mission – to help citizens drive change through collective action.
Coming soon
“Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I will move the world.”
Archimedes