Cash for registration? The Cabinet Office last week announced a ‘further’ £9.8m of spending to promote voter registration. Some £6.8m is being allocated to local authorities, depending on their levels of under-registration. And up to £2.5m will be used... Posted 13 Jan 2015
Open Up: the future of the political party The traditional political parties are in big trouble. Back in the 1950s, one person in every ten was a member of a political party. Now, there are more people who identify their religion as ‘Jedi’... Posted 18 Dec 2014
Reckless choices? After Clacton, comes Rochester and Strood. At the start of the campaign, the Conservatives felt they stood a good chance of winning this second by-election caused by a Conservative MP defecting to UKIP. In comparison... Posted 21 Nov 2014
Friends, Romanians, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Votes… Turnout has been in the news once again, with a report from the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee advocating bank holidays on election days, votes at 16 and other structural changes to increase turnout. Structural and institutional... Posted 17 Nov 2014
Rhodri Morgan on the constitution “If we Brits could write a constitution for the Germans in 1947/8, why can’t we do it for ourselves?” When it came to discussing our inaugural annual lecture themed around the next 15 years of... Posted 17 Oct 2014
A new party system So UKIP burst through, taking Clacton on a 44.1% swing, the second highest in UK by-election history after Bermondsey and Old Southwark, 1982. The two party system is dead, and has been for a long... Posted 10 Oct 2014
Cheryl Gillan on women in politics This is a guest post by Cheryl Gillan, Conservative MP for Chesham and Amersham and former Secretary of State for Wales. The views, opinions and positions expressed within are those of the author alone and... Posted 29 Sep 2014
The indyref aftermath The ERS held its first Labour Party conference event this morning. The subject was “What next after the Scottish independence referendum?” At one level this should not be so contentious – Scotland has been promised significant... Posted 22 Sep 2014
Something in the air Scotland is shrouded in a muggy haar today, and it feels as if we’ve been cut off from the rest of the world in order to concentrate and exercise our democratic right to vote: for... Posted 18 Sep 2014
Come together Scotland is alive with an unprecedented level of political debate. In homes, pubs and town halls, that debate is not limited to technicalities; it’s about the way people want to be governed, the society they... Posted 08 Sep 2014