Articles by Doug Cowan

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Doug Cowan, Head of Digital

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Ireland’s TV debates show the difference the electoral system makes

On Tuesday the 4th February, ITV’s political editor Robert Peston tweeted: The Irish leaders’ debate is really quite shocking. The three leaders have a detailed grasp of complex welfare and tax issues, they are polite...

Posted 06 Feb 2020

Keir (Hardie) was a strong supporter of electoral reform

Labour, from its beginnings 100 years ago has promoted democratic reform. Keir Hardie was a supporter of the Electoral Reform Society (then called the Proportional Representation Society). Hardie, a leading Scottish socialist, helped found the...

Posted 24 Jan 2020

Introducing the ERS General Election Results Hub

Every general election, sites like the BBC, Guardian and Telegraph present live updates of the general election results as they roll in. Yet, despite having the data in front of you, it’s often hard to see the warping effect of our broken...

Posted 09 Dec 2019

London mayoral race: Will Rory Stewart’s candidacy ‘split’ the Conservative vote?

If there is one thing you can predict about politics these days, it’s that you can’t predict anything. In the space of a few months, Rory Stewart has gone from running for leadership of the...

Posted 04 Oct 2019

If neither get into the second round, all their votes will be wasted

At our Lib Dem fringe, panelists looked at future proofing our campaigning laws

With proportional representation a long-term policy of the Liberal Democrats, we took the opportunity to discuss the wider crisis in our democracy at the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference in Bournemouth this year. As the possibility...

Posted 03 Oct 2019

We must ensure that online campaigning does not remain beyond the law

An elected House of Lords wouldn’t just be a clone of the House of Commons

The Electoral Reform Society has long campaigned for the House of Lords to be abolished and replaced with a new modern, fairly elected democratic second chamber. We also want to see the one ‘democratic’ chamber...

Posted 10 Sep 2019

Australian Senate reforms need to go further to put voters back in control

Ill-thought-out plans have a habit of coming back and biting you, and it’s no different in politics. In fact, the risks of unintended consequences are even higher, as politicians on one side have an incentive...

Posted 30 Apr 2019

What does preferential voting mean?

There has been talking recently about using preferential voting to solve the Brexit impasse – whether through MPs using it to find a form of Brexit that parliament can support or through a referendum. When...

Posted 26 Mar 2019

With first past the post, country and city voters take turns being locked out of government

Far too often, debates around electoral reform are characterised as the idea of making two pie charts match: one pie chart represents how the country voted, the other the make-up of parliament. The 2015 general...

Posted 28 Feb 2019