Making democracy work

For A Change, June-July, 1997 by Mike Lowe

Across-party group of Ukrainian Members of Parliament visited Britain in February for ten days on `Making democracy work', organized by MRA's Foundations for Freedom programme. During their stay, the MPs met members of the British government and parliament, civil servants and academics. They visited Liverpool to study partnerships for urban renewal and North Wales to investigate democracy in bi-lingual communities. A visit to the BBC focussed issues of media regulation. The group also looked at a drug awareness programme in a London school and at community policing.

The programme focussed on the values which underpin democracy, particularly trust and dialogue. At the final reception several MPs spoke of what they had learnt. `Many people think that politics and morality belong to different worlds,' said Andriy Mostysky, a member of the foreign affairs committee in the Ukrainian parliament. `We have seen the importance of morality and must work to raise Ukraine and Britain to a higher level.'