Discussion rules

By registering with this site you agree to abide by the following rules.

These are standard web discussion rules that are designed to ensure participants feel safe, keen to take part and the discussion meets its objectives:

Debate should be lively but also respectful.
Stay on-topic. Please don’t post messages that are unrelated to this online forum.
Stay relaxed – though this deliberation is important and influential, taking part should be a positive experience.
Don’t incite hatred on the basis of race, religion, gender, nationality or sexuality or other personal characteristic.
Don’t swear, use hate-speech or make obscene or vulgar comments.
Don’t break the law. This includes libel, condoning illegal activity and contempt of court (comments which might affect the outcome of an approaching court case).
Please don’t post personal information, including addresses, phone numbers, email addresses or other online contact details either relating to yourself or other individuals.
Don’t engage in “spamming”. Please don’t add the same comment to more than one forum.
Don’t advertise. You can mention relevant products and services as long as they support your comment.
Don’t impersonate or falsely claim to represent a person or organisation. Please don’t mislead other users by abusing our registration procedure.
Don’t post in a language other than English. We hope in the future to be able to support translation.
Avoid being party political – this site is about consensus-building, not party political point-scoring.
Under 16? – If you are aged 16 or under, please get your parent/guardian’s permission before participating in this online forum. Users without this consent are not allowed to participate or provide us with personal information.

If a comment contravenes the discussion rules it will not be published or removed from the forum.

Posts may be returned to the participant by email, along with a reference to the broken rule(s). The participant will be invited to make appropriate changes in order that the post can be reconsidered. However, if a participant repeatedly breaks the rules that participant’s user account will be suspended and may be permanently revoked.