News and Comment

The latest news and commentary from the Electoral Reform Society.

Around the World | Current Affairs Commentary | Developments at the ERS | Your Questions Answered | Case Studies

Clegg v Farage: good for democracy

A date has now been set for Nick Clegg’s debate with Nigel Farage on the merits of Britain’s membership of the European Union. And it’s good news for our democracy. People who are disengaged from party politics...

Posted 05 Mar 2014

We need to talk about PMQs

Prime Minister’s Questions hit the headlines last week following a Hansard Society report that found nearly half of their respondents thought it ‘too noisy and aggressive’. The Speaker, John Bercow, supported the report, criticising the ‘orchestrated barracking’...

Posted 26 Feb 2014

Neglecting Wythenshawe

Voters in Wythenshawe and Sale East are getting an unusual amount of attention as they go to the polls today. In a by-election, the might of parties’ national infrastructure can be concentrated on a single...

Posted 13 Feb 2014

Time to Bite the Ballot

Today is the first-ever National Voter Registration Day – a fantastic initiative by Bite the Ballot to get as many (particularly younger) people on the electoral register as possible. A large number of schools, businesses, associations and...

Posted 05 Feb 2014

On dual candidacy, let’s play nice

The UK Government has confirmed its intention to lift the ban on dual candidacy in its Draft Wales Bill. In a nutshell, dual candidacy is when an individual contests both a constituency seat and a party...

Posted 18 Dec 2013

Senedd Cymru Welsh Parliament

Tomorrow’s Party: share your vision

This post was originally published by Democratic Audit. Contribute to our Tomorrow’s Party consultation here.    Kind words are rarely spoken about political parties nowadays. If members of the public think of them at all, they tend to...

Posted 09 Dec 2013

Pausing the Lobbying Bill

The Government’s concession this week to pause and briefly consult on the worst aspects of the deeply flawed Part 2 of the Lobbying Bill demonstrates the power and importance of collective organising and co-operative campaigning....

Posted 07 Nov 2013

Wales and the Lobbying Bill

The potential effects of the Lobbying Bill on democracy at the UK level have been widely discussed, and it is difficult to cover the myriad problems the Bill poses in a single blog. This is...

Posted 24 Oct 2013

Only one in five ministers are female

In 2009, David Cameron pledged that a third of his ministers would be women. But even today, after a reshuffle which has increased the number of women in government by three, still only one in five ministers...

Posted 08 Oct 2013