Articles by Doug Cowan

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Doug Cowan, Head of Digital

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How many votes did Labour get in 2024?

On election night in 2024, the headlines celebrated a Labour landslide. Crowds cheered, pundits predicted a bold new direction, and the idea of a strong majority government dominated the conversation. But as the confetti settled,...

Posted 25 Sep 2025

Labour won a commanding majority, even though two-thirds did not vote for the party

MPs vote to cut short First Past the Post’s imposition on Mayors

On 2 September 2025, the House of Commons held the second reading of the English Devolution & Community Empowerment Bill. While the bill covers many areas, one of the clauses is something we have been...

Posted 03 Sep 2025

This bill has the opportunity to not just repair the damage, but improve on what we had

Electoral Commission Chair calls for deeper citizenship education

At the Electoral Reform Society we have long called for the right to vote to be extended to 16 and 17 year olds. Far too many people don’t vote, and research has shown that 16...

Posted 26 Aug 2025

Robust democracy depends on early informed participation

MPs vote for proportional representation in victory for public

Last week, Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Olney managed to find time in the parliamentary schedule to make the case for a voting system that treats every voter fairly. ‘Ten-minute rule’ bills are opportunities for MPs...

Posted 10 Dec 2024

Does the parliamentary petition site make a difference?

The parliamentary petition site is in the news at the moment, as nearly three million people have signed a petition asking for a new general election. The petition is set to be debated on the...

Posted 02 Dec 2024

Parliament’s petition site isn’t a magic route to changing the law

Positive statements on restoring the electoral system for Mayors and PCCs

There have been positive noises from government ministers on repairing one part of the damage done to our democracy by the previous government. At the Local Government Association conference this week, government minister Jim McMahon...

Posted 24 Oct 2024

Will the electoral system for directly elected leaders be addressed in the White Paper on Devolution

Surprising Conservative leadership vote shows that voting systems matter

James Cleverly must have thought he was in with a chance of winning the leadership of the Conservative Party, in the lead, as he was, on the last vote of Conservative MPs. But, the ballots...

Posted 09 Oct 2024

Did a tactical voting blunder hit the Conservative leadership contest?

It should be a scandal that small changes in the vote result in outsize changes in Parliament

Two, rather similar, articles came out today on the likely impact of small swings in the vote on the results of the general election. In the Times, they identified 130,000 voters in 100 seats that...

Posted 03 Jul 2024

In 2017 533 extra votes in nine constituencies would have changed the result

What does a super-majority mean and is it something we should worry about?

In the last week, the current defence secretary, Grant Shapps, has been appearing in the news to warn about the supposed dangers of a Labour ‘super-majority’. He told Times Radio “You don’t want to have...

Posted 18 Jun 2024

Parliament can make or remove any law with a simple majority vote

TV Debates have become an important part of our elections, let’s do them right

The first election debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer will be on our TV screens tonight, at 9pm on ITV. We’ve already seen a debate between party leaders in Scotland (none of whom are...

Posted 04 Jun 2024