News and Comment

The latest news and commentary from the Electoral Reform Society.

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Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith Quizzed on Democratic Reform

The Labour leadership election is in full swing, with the vote closing on Wednesday 21st September. At the ERS, we’re running Q&As with the leadership candidates for the Labour Party. On Tuesday we published our Q&A with...

Posted 07 Sep 2016

The next four years for reform: our 2020 strategy

Over the past few years, the Electoral Reform Society has gone from strength to strength. As the world’s oldest pro-democracy organisation, we have a long history of fighting to build a better democracy. And now...

Posted 07 Sep 2016

Referendums are in vogue – so let’s get them right

Referendums are becoming increasingly popular, internationally and domestically. Since the first UK referendum in 1975, the UK has held three nationally, and 11 in UK countries or English regions, with even more at a local...

Posted 05 Sep 2016

Polling Station

Doing referendums differently

There’s no denying it: referendums have become a central feature of our politics. So it’s about time we started thinking seriously about how we should run them. Since 2011 we have had two UK-wide referendums...

Posted 01 Sep 2016

Electoral Reform in Parliament again

Two of our issues are back in the House of Commons this week as Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, will be presenting her ‘Electoral Reform (Proportional Representation and Reduction of Voting...

Posted 18 Aug 2016

The House of Lords needs more than tinkering

Lords reform is back on the agenda. And given the frequency of scandals we see in the upper chamber, that’s no surprise. A couple of weeks ago, we revealed that David Cameron’s 189 appointments to...

Posted 17 Aug 2016

House of Lords

Voter fraud: the nut and the sledgehammer

Last week, the Former Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, published his report into tackling electoral fraud in the UK. While we should of course take all instances of voter fraud very seriously,...

Posted 15 Aug 2016

Driving Licence Voter ID

David Cameron’s Farewell Gift

Now that David Cameron has moved out of Number 10, the staggering bill he has left behind is starting to become apparent. Since 2010, he has appointed 205 new life peers to the House of...

Posted 08 Aug 2016

House of Lords