News and Comment

The latest news and commentary from the Electoral Reform Society.

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Where are my leaflets?

“How could I make a decision? I didn’t receive any leaflets” That seemed to be a common complaint from the 2013 County Council Elections. We’ve conducted a string of interviews for local radio where many...

Posted 13 May 2013

Four good reasons to oppose recall

Governments rarely receive praise for inaction – but that is precisely the right move on recall. In today’s Queen’s Speech there was no reference to the pledge to legislate for recall. This is a system...

Posted 08 May 2013

UKIP rise: Expect the unexpected

As polls open in County Council Elections all the talk is on UKIP’s prospects. Our elections were never designed for 3 party politics – let alone 4. Our fickle First Past the Post system has...

Posted 02 May 2013

A vote that could have changed Britain

A vote has just taken place that could have changed British Democracy forever. And it didn’t take place in Westminster but over in Strasburg – as the European Court of Human Rights upheld the ban...

Posted 22 Apr 2013

Do you live in a Rotten Borough?

With this year’s county council elections only a few weeks away, we’ve undertaken new analysis that has revealed the parlous state of local democracy in England and Wales. Evidence shows 21 million people are now...

Posted 17 Apr 2013

Why 32,000 people will be denied a vote in May

On Thursday 6 May, 27 county councils and 8 unitary authorities in England and Anglesey in Wales will hold elections. Sadly, they give us yet another example of the woeful state of local government. The...

Posted 10 Apr 2013

South Shields: Why bother with a by-election?

After David Miliband’s shock resignation we’re looking at a by-election in South Shields. At the Electoral Reform Society we care about elections. But in the case of South Shields we’re wondering what’s the point? The...

Posted 27 Mar 2013

What Scots really think about devolution?

Scots currently aren’t keen on independence, but most of us would like all major powers – including welfare and tax – exercised in Edinburgh, not Westminster. Today we launch a joint report with Scotcen to show what...

Posted 18 Mar 2013