Reckless choices? After Clacton, comes Rochester and Strood. At the start of the campaign, the Conservatives felt they stood a good chance of winning this second by-election caused by a Conservative MP defecting to UKIP. In comparison... Posted 21 Nov 2014
Friends, Romanians, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Votes… Turnout has been in the news once again, with a report from the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee advocating bank holidays on election days, votes at 16 and other structural changes to increase turnout. Structural and institutional... Posted 17 Nov 2014
Rhodri Morgan on the constitution “If we Brits could write a constitution for the Germans in 1947/8, why can’t we do it for ourselves?” When it came to discussing our inaugural annual lecture themed around the next 15 years of... Posted 17 Oct 2014
A new party system So UKIP burst through, taking Clacton on a 44.1% swing, the second highest in UK by-election history after Bermondsey and Old Southwark, 1982. The two party system is dead, and has been for a long... Posted 10 Oct 2014
The indyref aftermath The ERS held its first Labour Party conference event this morning. The subject was “What next after the Scottish independence referendum?” At one level this should not be so contentious – Scotland has been promised significant... Posted 22 Sep 2014
Come together Scotland is alive with an unprecedented level of political debate. In homes, pubs and town halls, that debate is not limited to technicalities; it’s about the way people want to be governed, the society they... Posted 08 Sep 2014
A new Scotland As a politically active individual and an elections geek you’d think I would be excited beyond reason about the independence referendum. In actual fact, I have found the debate to be depressingly repetitive, providing few... Posted 05 Sep 2014
How to get excited about local government reform Recent weeks have continued to see all sorts of handwringing and dark soothsaying about the state of representative democracy. Untrusted politicians, growing inequality and low election turnouts are just part of this sorry state. ... Posted 18 Aug 2014
Not good enough As the dust settles on the Government reshuffle, you would be forgiven for thinking that the genders are now fairly represented on the front benches. Nothing could be further from the truth. Despite this week’s high-profile... Posted 17 Jul 2014
Women and indyref As the date of the referendum draws ever nearer, and the gender gap in the polls shows no sign of closing, there seem to be more events targeting women and their opinions. Which is great: women’s... Posted 03 Jul 2014