‘Democracy denied’ as report reveals how voters are left voiceless across EnglandERS Research Officer Ian Simpson introduces his new report: Democracy Denied: The 2019 Election Audit If two party politics isn’t dead, it has certainly taken a big hit over the first half of 2019. The...Posted 22 Aug 2019
Ending the Politics of Division – How We Can Build a New DemocracyTen years on from the expenses scandal that rocked trust in our politics and nearly three years since this Brexit deadlock began, Britain’s broken political system remains largely unchanged. No one can deny it: the...Posted 25 May 2019
Local elections: How voter ID trial could undermine the right to voteHere’s something you might not know about Thursday’s local elections: hundreds of thousands of potential voters are being told that unless they bring ID with them, they’ll be turned away. If rolled out nationally –...Posted 30 Apr 2019
Political parties need to stand more women candidates to close the political gender gapThere can be no doubt that in order to see more women elected to our political institutions, political parties need to stand more women candidates. Yet there is no official information on the diversity of...Posted 08 Mar 2019
Reining in the political ‘Wild West’: Why we need campaign rules for the 21st centuryPolitical party campaigning has shifted dramatically online in recent years. To give just one example: political parties spent around £1.3 million on Facebook adverts during the 2015 general election. This more than doubled two years...Posted 04 Feb 2019
Time is running out in this Centenary year – why are the government waiting to tackle the ‘political gender gap’?In November, the Electoral Reform Society helped coordinate an unprecedented coalition of campaigners and politicians in calling for government action on the ‘political gender gap’. Marking the centenary of women’s right to stand for Parliament,...Posted 14 Dec 2018
We know the gender pay gap – what about the political gender gap?Next Wednesday we’ll mark 100 years since Parliament passed legislation enabling women (over 21) to become MPs for the first time. Sadly, since that landmark legislation, there has been a grand total of just 491...Posted 15 Nov 2018
Why we can’t leave our democracy at the whim of tech giants like FacebookAnother vote is never far away. But even outside of election time, campaigning rumbles on. Each day, a lot of cash is spent influencing political debate. These days though, that’s not just people delivering leaflets...Posted 25 Oct 2018
The government’s voter ID plans are ‘rearranging the deckchairs’ in the face of new threats to our democracy On May 3rd 2018, 350 people were denied a vote in their local council elections. Their crime? Not possessing the right ID. The minister hailed these trials of mandatory voter ID as a ‘success’....Posted 11 Sep 2018
Our democracy faces many threats – but the government has picked the wrong priorityIt’s not just campaigners saying it any more: democracy is officially at risk, according to parliament’s digital, culture, media and sport committee. Britain’s main campaign rules were drawn up in the late 1990s, before social...Posted 02 Aug 2018