Articles by Electoral Reform Society

Author:

STV’s Second Outing

In 2007 Scotland began using the Single Transferable Vote (STV) for local government elections. The First Past the Post system – once used for all public elections in mainland Britain – was consigned to history....

Posted 27 Feb 2013

Where are the women in local government?

At first glance, UK local government statistics aren’t exactly the most exciting topic for a blog. But they’re really important as they give us an insight into gender and politics in the UK today. The...

Posted 25 Feb 2013

Blanket ban on broadcasting ‘shutting voters out’

While some communities still face barriers accessing the internet, for others online channels like council websites, Twitter and Facebook are important ways of finding out information.  From big decisions like planning applications, through to everyday...

Posted 20 Feb 2013

Time to Discuss Local Democracy in Wales

A few weeks ago, Electoral Reform Society Wales gave evidence to the Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee about the new Local Democracy Bill making its way through the National Assembly. Is the new Local...

Posted 06 Feb 2013

Politics: the future is plural

  The question of whether it is possible to be both a pluralist and a tribalist in politics dominated the debate at last night’s launch of Labour for Democracy, a new network within the Labour...

Posted 05 Dec 2012

16 days and counting to an election no one’s heard of…

Another day, another disaster. We now hear that £350,000 worth of ballot papers are headed for the shredder. The farce that is the Police and Crime Commissioner Elections is continuing to thrill audiences across the country....

Posted 30 Oct 2012

Police and Crime Commissioners

Does no means ‘No Change’ or ‘More Powers’?

So we have a deal. We have a Yes/No question for a vote on Scottish Independence, and we can hardly contain our disappointment. This referendum has become a bit of a game with both sides intent...

Posted 15 Oct 2012

Politics is too important to be left to the politicians

As the first stage in a yearlong process to imagine what a ‘Good Scottish Democracy’ might look like we asked for volunteers to take part in a discussion about the future of Scotland Democracy.  ...

Posted 12 Oct 2012