Quaker launches political platform
A Friend has launched a new digital tool for voters
A Harrogate Quaker who stood as an independent candidate in the 2023 Selby and Ainsty by-election has launched a digital tool for voters.
Andrew Gray told the Friend that the platform Suffrago uses ‘ethical artificial intelligence to elevate the voices of constituents and provide MPs with a truer sense of the public mood’. It is ‘built on the Quaker belief that every voice matters, as opposed to the social media method of promoting division’.
Andrew Gray, a former lawyer, said the inspiration for Suffrago came from the same place that led him to stand in the by-election: ‘I felt a leading. There was this quiet but persistent sense that I needed to act. Suffrago, in many ways, is a continuation of that call – to help our democracy listen more carefully, more honestly, and more compassionately.’
Suffrago offers 650 live data dashboards, one for every UK constituency, analysing everything from housing and income to crime and happiness. It also allows people to express views anonymously through a voting tool that helps uncover areas of consensus – ‘all without the toxicity of social media’, he said. Every Quaker Meeting in the UK is already ‘served’ by the platform, which is free to access and co-founded with Simon Wallace, a data scientist. ‘At its heart, Suffrago is Quakerly,’ Andrew added. ‘It’s about listening. It’s about transparency. It’s about empowering communities without dominating them… Many Friends over the centuries have stepped into the public square – campaigning for peace, for justice, for accountability. Suffrago – the name inspired by the Suffragettes – is just the latest way of doing that… We hope to launch in every democracy throughout the world.’
Forty-two MPs, and/or their chiefs of staff, have so far signed up to view their data dashboards and engage with the anonymous polling results. A Political Neutrality Council and AI Ethics Council have been established to safeguard the platform’s integrity.
