Why unions are getting serious about the need for political reformA week before the court case over prorogation reached the Supreme Court, the ERS’ Dr Jess Garland told TUC Congress delegates: “Our constitution is just a set of gentlemen’s agreements, with weak parliamentary checks and...Posted 19 Sep 2019
ERS in the Press – August 2019August saw talk of a constitutional crisis come to the fore – and it was a long time coming. The confusion is what happens when a centralised Westminster system and winner-takes-all mentality clashes with the...Posted 03 Sep 2019
Another election under Westminster’s broken voting system is unlikely to get us out of this crisisBack in May, our Westminster Beyond Brexit report raised a prescient question: “Do we want a democracy that gives the power of an absolute monarch to one party, or a government which is representative and...Posted 03 Sep 2019
Asking Theresa May To Show ‘Restraint’ In Her Resignation Honours Misses The Point – The Lords Is BustWhen even Peers are calling for an overhaul of the House of Lords, you know the chamber is broken. A few weeks ago, the Lord Speaker’s committee – set up in response to concerns over...Posted 06 Aug 2019
Local elections: How voters in England were cheated by a broken voting systemLocal democracy in England and Wales has long been under strain – with contests often seeing dismally low turnout, or indeed no contest taking place at all. But new research from the ERS adds fresh...Posted 30 Jul 2019
The Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland: What can be learnt from elsewhere?How do you ensure the recently-announced Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland is open and transparent while protecting the participants from hostility and excess lobbying? How do you ensure it is independent of government – but also that it...Posted 17 Jul 2019
Support grows for new way of doing democracy, as hundreds discuss Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland plansIt’s clear that there is a growing appetite for a new kind of democracy, after hundreds gathered on Monday evening to debate plans for a Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland. At a sold-out panel Q&A hosted...Posted 10 Jul 2019
Democracy needs you: Cross-party group seeks evidence for how to update Britain’s ‘wild west’ campaign rulesLast month saw a landmark in the push to overhaul Britain’s dangerously out-dated political campaigns laws. MPs from across the political divide stepped up efforts to update Britain’s analogue-age election rules, by launching the All...Posted 10 Jun 2019
Ending the Punch and Judy show: How to get a more cooperative politicsThere is an uncomfortable fact for those who oppose moves to a fairer voting system: all the chaos we have seen in Westminster over the past few years has been under the ‘strong and stable’...Posted 30 May 2019
Even council leaders are uncomfortable with the ‘one party states’ of First Past the PostMay’s local elections in England showed just how unfit-for-purpose the voting system is, as voters were left with random results and warped council chambers. The elections saw big swings against the two main parties, as...Posted 16 May 2019