Articles and Insights

Accessible commentary and insights from the Electoral Reform Society on the issues shaping our democracy.

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In memory of Lord Avebury

On 14th February 2016 Lord Avebury, or Eric Lubbock, sadly passed away. Lord Avebury, a Liberal Democrat Peer, was a proud democratic reformer throughout his life, campaigning for proportional representation and a range of democratic causes. He...

Posted 15 Feb 2016

More Lords, fewer MPs?…

Since 2010, the Prime Minister has appointed rather a lot of Peers. 244, to be precise. That’s a lot of new politicians. So it was strange to hear the news on Friday that the government are going ahead with...

Posted 12 Feb 2016

House of Lords

Time for a Registration Revolution

Today is National Voter Registration day, launched by our friends at Bite the Ballot. Voter registration is an integral part of our democracy. If you’re not registered you can’t vote. Electoral boundaries are now also drawn based...

Posted 05 Feb 2016

Iowan Explanation – The raucous in the caucus explained

No election grabs the world’s attention quite like an American election does. This is largely because whatever else might be the case, the US is still the world’s superpower. But there is also something inherently...

Posted 01 Feb 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