News and Comment

The latest news and commentary from the Electoral Reform Society.

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A true democrat

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Rivonia trial, and the sentencing of Nelson Mandela to life imprisonment on charges of sabotage, and acting to ‘further the aims of communism’. It goes without...

Posted 12 Jun 2014

Nelson Mandela

Bun-fight in Brussels

This was supposed to be the year it all changed. Since the European Commission’s creation, the beginning of each term has been dominated by diplomatic tussling over who would hold its presidency. This process has...

Posted 04 Jun 2014

The Margo way

Today, 30th May 2014, marks the start of the official campaign period for the Scottish referendum. “But they’ve been campaigning for ages,” I hear you cry. Well yes, but from here on in all the registered...

Posted 30 May 2014

One Direction for electing MEPs

We haven’t had a high-profile defection in Welsh politics for a while, so it’s unsurprising that the hearts of some were set aflutter when the former Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney,...

Posted 12 May 2014

Closing the EU’s democracy Gap

There is an ever-widening divide between the European institutions and the British people. We are members of the European Union, yet most of us don’t feel part of it or able to shape its policies....

Posted 28 Apr 2014

As long as it’s interim

Last week I attended two different events which discussed the possibilities a written constitution presents to Scotland. This week I am due to attend another. Scotland has already begun to think about what a constitution...

Posted 24 Mar 2014

Tackling Europe’s democratic deficit

Over the last few years, the European democratic deficit has reached almost epic proportions. Nearly three-quarters of the British people believe their voice doesn’t count in the European Union, and 68% don’t trust it. At...

Posted 24 Mar 2014

Defending the postal vote

A BBC radio programme on postal vote fraud was aired last night, and it contained a call from a high court judge to scrap ‘on-demand’ postal votes. This knee-jerk reaction to the problem of fraud represents...

Posted 12 Mar 2014

North Korean elections: The veneer of democracy

This weekend the North Korean ‘election’ took place. Of course, it wasn’t exactly democratic; it wasn’t really even an election. Each seat had only one candidate, and voters had the choice of voting either for...

Posted 10 Mar 2014

Pyongyang North Korea Bronze statue

Paying for parties

With party funding in the news thanks to Labour’s special conference last weekend, we thought we’d find out what the public thinks about the relationship between money and political parties. And it turns out that people...

Posted 05 Mar 2014