News and Comment

The latest news and commentary from the Electoral Reform Society.

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South Shields: Why bother with a by-election?

After David Miliband’s shock resignation we’re looking at a by-election in South Shields. At the Electoral Reform Society we care about elections. But in the case of South Shields we’re wondering what’s the point? The...

Posted 27 Mar 2013

What Scots really think about devolution?

Scots currently aren’t keen on independence, but most of us would like all major powers – including welfare and tax – exercised in Edinburgh, not Westminster. Today we launch a joint report with Scotcen to show what...

Posted 18 Mar 2013

Reviving the Health of Our Democracy

Political and constitutional reform has had a tough time of late but going into the next General Election has never been so important. Too often shoved into the ‘too difficult’ box, reform of our democratic...

Posted 12 Mar 2013

Scottish Public want bigger voice in politics

Last week politicians in Scotland were queuing up to call for more power to be exercised at local level. But it seems our politicians are coming late to the party on localism. Today we launch the...

Posted 12 Mar 2013

Blanket ban on broadcasting ‘shutting voters out’

While some communities still face barriers accessing the internet, for others online channels like council websites, Twitter and Facebook are important ways of finding out information.  From big decisions like planning applications, through to everyday...

Posted 20 Feb 2013

A weekend with the ERS and Unlock Democracy grassroots

David Cameron’s recent failure to secure far-reaching boundary changes in time for the 2015 General Election was another nail in the coffin of the Westminster government’s constitutional and political reform agenda. Many changes have been...

Posted 11 Feb 2013

Time to Discuss Local Democracy in Wales

A few weeks ago, Electoral Reform Society Wales gave evidence to the Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee about the new Local Democracy Bill making its way through the National Assembly. Is the new Local...

Posted 06 Feb 2013

Politics: the future is plural

  The question of whether it is possible to be both a pluralist and a tribalist in politics dominated the debate at last night’s launch of Labour for Democracy, a new network within the Labour...

Posted 05 Dec 2012