Talk:Charter 88

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Text from "Charter 88"[edit]

Charter 88 was formed by progressive (mainly liberal and social democratic) British intellectuals and activists in 1988. Its name was inspired by that of Charter 77.

It quickly became a cross-party pressure group whose "signatories" were in effect members. It campaigned for freedom of information and for constitutional reforms including a written constitution (with a bill of rights that would be enforceable by the judiciary), and proportional representation, devolution of power to new elected bodies in Scotland and Wales.

The campaign printed advertisements in national newspapers calling on citizens to sign the Charter.

The party most sympathetic to the Charter's demands was the Liberal Democrats, but the Labour Party gradually adopted a substantial part of the programme as well.

In 1999, a group called Charter 99 was formed with the intention of promoting reform of the United Nations and other international bodies, but never really got off the ground.

Charter 88 still formally exists but is less active than formerly and is struggling financially.

Text (above) from the former "Charter 88" article, now incorporated with links into the existing article. Most of this information was already in the article. I transferred and added links to "... formed by progressive (mainly liberal and social democratic) British intellectuals and activists..." MPLX/MH 20:43, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC

Michael Foot[edit]

Michael Foot is described here as "left-of-centre" - whilst he wasn't Militant Tendency, I think it's fair to say that he was from the left-wing side of the Labour Party in the 1980s rather than "Left of centre", which would be more apt to the break-away Social Democrats. Wee Jimmy 00:49, 17 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Removed "left of centre" from descriptor; I'm fairly left-wing, but even I don't think it's apt to describe Michael Foot as "left of centre". – Zumoarirodoka(talk)(email) 23:22, 30 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

United Europe[edit]

"Much of the original drive behind the organization has been drained and rendered moot by a parallel movement to enact a written constitution for a United Europe." I see no evidence for the rather odd second half of this statement - perhaps we should remove it. I think the reason the drive has been drained is largely the fact that in 1997-9 it was felt that the Labour government had largely adopted many of the Charter's aims anyway.

Charter 99[edit]

Is it connected to Charter88? Why isn't that clear from the article? --Duncan 21:46, 9 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I concur, I don't see the relevance of Charter99 to Charter88. The only connection it has to this article is that the name was probably derived from the same source. I'm removing it for now, if anyone has a reason why it should be in feel free to revert. Adacore (talk) 15:48, 27 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 10 September 2018[edit]

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: moved. (non-admin closure) KCVelaga (talk) 00:26, 18 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]



Charter88Charter 88 – The successor organisation, Unlock Democracy, has republished the charter. This uses the spelling "Charter 88" throughout, which provides the official name. The spelling "Charter 88" provides 346 results in Google News, whilst "Charter88" provides eight. Of these eight results, most of them more commonly use the spelling "Charter 88". Google Books gives us 13,800 results for "Charter 88" and 2,330 for "Charter88". I think this establishes "Charter 88" as the common name. The move is also an improvement in naturalness. Ralbegen (talk) 18:29, 10 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

  • Support move per the nominator's rationale. "Charter88" is not natural. ONR (talk) 23:11, 10 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.