Q&A with Katie Ghose: "We need a democracy fit for the 21st century" The interview below was first published by the online magazine Blue & Green Tomorrow. Katie became Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society in 2010. A campaigner and barrister with a background in human rights law and... Posted 27 Jan 2016
5 Myths About the Scottish Lobbying Bill This is a guest post by Pete Mills from Unlock Democracy In the first week back after Christmas, MSPs debated a Bill to introduce a lobbying register designed to let ordinary people know who is... Posted 25 Jan 2016
Scotland needs a stronger Lobbying Bill Remember the phone-hacking scandal? It seems long ago, but we shouldn’t forget how much we learned about the ways big private interests try to influence policy. The Leveson Inquiry dug up all sorts of stories... Posted 07 Jan 2016
Our top ten most read blogs of 2015 2015 was the busiest year ever for the Electoral Reform Society blog, with monthly readership over double the level we had in 2014. As we get stuck in to 2016, we thought we’d look back... Posted 04 Jan 2016
Jonathan Reynolds MP tried to introduce proportional representation This blog is a guest post from Jonathan Reynolds MP. Jonathan delivered this speech in the House of Commons on Wednesday 16 December as a motion for leave to bring in the Representation of the... Posted 18 Dec 2015
It’s time 16 and 17 year olds got the vote Last month saw a big victory for campaigners for a fairer franchise: the House of Lords supported giving 16 and 17-year-olds a vote in the EU referendum. Votes at 16 is now in the Bill. But... Posted 04 Dec 2015
Putting PR in Parliament UPDATE, December 3: The Bill has now been rescheduled and will be heard on Wednesday 16th December. —- It’s not an opportunity that comes up very often, so this is an important one: this Wednesday,... Posted 30 Nov 2015
Caroline Lucas MP: "We can’t let our constitution be rewritten behind closed doors" This is a guest post from Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion Devolution deals signed across the country with barely any public involvement, and a review of the House of Lords led by a Conservative... Posted 24 Nov 2015
Citizens want a say on devolution Last weekend was the final of two ‘Citizens’ Assemblies’ across the UK as part of a ground-breaking project to engage the public in the devolution debate. And one thing that kept coming up was that... Posted 20 Nov 2015
Red cards and re-negotiations Today, Prime Minister David Cameron has written to President of the European Council Donald Tusk setting out his demands for a renegotiation of Britain’s membership of the European Union. One of the four planks of the PM’s... Posted 10 Nov 2015