Citizens’ assemblies can help us move beyond a broken Westminster model of politicsThis piece was originally published by The Scotsman. Talk of citizens’ assemblies is in the air. Former Conservative leadership contender, Rory Stewart has suggested holding one to break through the Brexit impasse. And on Monday,...Posted 20 Jun 2019
Binary indicative votes were never going to achieve a consensusThis is an expanded version of a letter from our Senior Director, Willie Sullivan, that was published in the Times on March 29th. When MPs voted to take control of the order paper in an...Posted 29 Mar 2019
Scotland needs new institutions to transform our local communitiesCan you remember a time you were talking with someone and the response you got back meant that it was blatantly obvious that they hadn’t understood what you were saying? You try again, but again...Posted 27 Feb 2019
Local government in Scotland is top-down and distant – but we can change thatIf there was once a connection between elected councillors in Scotland and the communities they supposedly represent, this has long since fallen away. City halls are often worlds apart from the communities within their apparent...Posted 01 Jan 2019
Why the Brexit TV debate debacle shows party leaders must be compelled to take partThere was a story noticeably absent on the front pages on Monday: Sunday night’s Brexit TV leaders debate. That’s because – for all the valiant efforts of broadcasters, there wasn’t one. The past month has...Posted 12 Dec 2018
The TV Brexit debate tantrums show why party leaders shouldn’t be able to dictate the formatIn an age where much of what we see and read about politics is micro-targeted and atomised, TV leaders’ debates offer a rare shared event for supporters of all parties – one reason why the...Posted 03 Dec 2018
TUC: A fair society needs equality in Westminster, not just the workplaceThe 150th Anniversary Congress of the TUC was both a celebration of the past – and a chance to look to the future of trade unions in Britain. Politics for the Many – the trade...Posted 20 Sep 2018
Are we about to witness an ‘arms race’ in Brexit spending?Over the weekend, the co-founder of the Superdry fashion label donated £1m to the People’s vote campaign, with the funds set to be used to conduct “one of the most detailed polling exercises ever undertaken...Posted 21 Aug 2018
Government figures have revealed the potential cost of voter ID – and it is enormousFrom the get go, the government’s plans to force voters to show ID when voting was a solution looking for a problem, and risked shutting out tens of thousands of voters. Now we have learnt...Posted 16 Aug 2018
Long Read: What’s gone wrong with our democracy – and how do we fix it?This is a time of high political anxiety. No one seems to be very sure of much anymore. Not that long ago it all seemed so different. The twentieth century was a time of tremendous...Posted 14 Aug 2018