News and Comment

The latest news and commentary from the Electoral Reform Society.

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The 2015 general election – A system in crisis

It’s official: this election was the most disproportionate in UK history. We’ve just released our new report on the May 7th General Election, A Voting System in Crisis. And it makes for worrying reading for fans of...

Posted 01 Jun 2015

The Lottery Election

639 Votes Are All That Would Be Needed to Change the Result of the 2015 election The 2015 election was won by only six seats. If six constituencies had voted differently then Britain would have...

Posted 20 May 2015

Ballot Papers

477,000 people…and five parties

There aren’t many issues which bring together UKIP and the Green Party, or the Liberal Democrats and the SNP. But there is one which does – the need for a fair voting system. That’s why...

Posted 18 May 2015

Politicians support PR

Nail in the Coffin of Westminster’s voting system

Well, it’s all over. All the months of campaigning have resulted in an election outcome which few predicted. It was a good night for the bookies, and a bad night for the pollsters – but...

Posted 11 May 2015

So who gets to be Prime Minister?

In 2011 the Fixed Term Parliaments Act was passed. Setting aside its merits or demerits, the politics behind its introduction and the decision to fix the terms at five years, it is a piece of...

Posted 06 May 2015

Fixed Term Parliament Act

What’s happening in Scotland?

If the polls are to be believed, next Thursday Scotland will vote to send more SNP MPs to the House of Commons than ever before. Why is what used to be a stable voting pattern...

Posted 29 Apr 2015

Who’s afraid of sharing power?

If you were to judge British public opinion from newspaper headlines, you would assume we were terrified of the idea of political parties working together. The horror stories of smaller parties ‘holding the country to...

Posted 27 Apr 2015

Taking your time forming a government

Some things can be done in a hurry, but forming a Government certainly shouldn’t be one of them. In our recent report, Working Together, we set out the guidelines for forming power-sharing arrangements based on...

Posted 20 Apr 2015

Do you live in a safe seat?

The outcome of this election is, on the whole, unpredictable. Who will form the next government is the question on everyone’s lips. But in hundreds of seats across the country, people already know the result....

Posted 10 Apr 2015

UK constituency map