Crossbencher
No whip. No party. Just the argument.
The idea, in 60 seconds
For people who’ve stopped trusting the labels.
Trust in political media collapsed for a reason: evidence and opinion arrive pre-stitched, and you can check neither. Crossbencher pulls them apart. Writing with a point of view, signed, about what’s actually happening to the country. Underneath it, non-aligned tools built on primary sources - Parliament, the ONS, the police, the councils - with a link on every figure, so the argument can start from the same facts.
Receipts, not verdicts. The tools show the evidence; you draw the conclusion.
13,115 RECORDS ON THE SPINE · 12,033 HEADLINES CAPTURED · THE PRESS ARCHIVED EVERY 15 MINUTES
1 · It starts as a game
Where do you stand?
Most people meet us through play. One question a day on the Bench - vote blind, then see where the room actually lands, not where anyone tells you it lands.
The Bench is between editions - the next question lands at 6am. See how it works →
Behind it, a daily arcade cut from the record itself - real quotes, real votes, real figures:
2 · Then it gets personal
Your patch, mapped to the receipt.
One postcode pulls the whole picture together: who runs your area, what they spend and with whom, how your MP votes, crime, housing, waiting lists - every figure linking straight to its source. Download the dossier and take it to the parish meeting. This is the map, live:
3 · Then it gets serious
Underneath the fun, a machine that never forgets.
The national press, captured every fifteen minutes and archived before it can be quietly edited. Every Commons vote. Every official figure. This is the live wire - the capture layer, visible:
On top of the record, the house publishes one argument a day - the other side steelmanned first, then answered - and readers argue back in the comments. Opinion, clearly labelled, standing on checkable ground.
Today’s argumentWhen the state promises to protect children online, ask who built the systemThe government will force tech platforms to stop children sharing nude images.13,115 records · 63 days of capture and counting. Corrections happen in the open: a fix is a new record that supersedes the old one, never a quiet edit. We built the machine that catches memory-holing - so we made ourselves incapable of it.
4 · And it spreads itself
Every result is a poster.
Finish a game, cast a vote, look up your street - the result comes back as a branded card built to be shared. The same engine runs the X account all day on its own: the question at 6am, the news through the day, the verdict of the room at 8pm. Readers do the distribution; the record does the arguing. These two are being rendered live, right now:
5 · In, then?
Take a seat.
The record stays free for everyone - that is the point, and the credibility. An account makes your Bench vote count. Membership funds the writers and the archive: £10 a month, first two months £5. One tier, no ladder, no upsell - or put something in once, if you would rather not subscribe.
Want to be part of it?
Writers who argue plainly, partners, fellow travellers - a line here goes straight to the founder.