Cameron’s broken promise on Women’s representationWomen’s representation in government has always appeared to matter to the Prime Minister. Back in his 2005 acceptance speech as leader David Cameron spoke of the need to end the “scandalous under-representation of women” in...Posted 09 Sep 2012
Low turnout is a gift to candidates who have cash to spendFor some people, low turnout is an opportunity. In the last week we’ve gained enormous traction for our report that Police and Crime Commissioner elections are set for record low turnout – 18.5%, quite possibly the lowest...Posted 26 Aug 2012
Lords Reform: A failure for Britain’s political classAnd so it’s come to pass. After all the gossip the government has finally withdrawn the House of Lords Reform bill. This isn’t about the failure of one party, one government or one bill, but of...Posted 06 Aug 2012
Playing pass the parcel on turnoutOn May 3 2012 Scotland went to the polls. We’d like to tell you precisely how many Scots actually went to vote, but the honest answer is we can’t. And that’s because no one knows...Posted 26 Jul 2012
Between apathy and hope – your chance to give yourself something to vote for!Peter Lesniak, Director of Communications, Bite the Ballot George Jean Nathan said a hundred yeas ago that ‘bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote’. This statement is as true today as...Posted 24 Jul 2012
A bold step forward for women’s representationIreland currently ranks 87 in the world for gender representation in politics with just 15.1% of Irish parliamentarians being women. This means in the world league tables Ireland lags behind Iraq, Burkina Faso and Turkmenistan...Posted 23 Jul 2012
Scots are ready for real, meaningful constitutional debateSince the launch of Yes Scotland and Better Together, the campaigns in support of independence and the Union respectively, the constitutional debate has entered a phase of relative quiet. While partisans and activists continue to fight the campaigns...Posted 17 Jul 2012
Super majority in the Commons on Lords reformThere was progress on the rocky road to reform of the House of Lords this week when the bill to introduce some members to the second chamber received huge support from MPs. But party politics...Posted 12 Jul 2012
February 1974 – The election everything changed for the British party system“Power of the British Voter in Terminal Decline.” So read the headline in Saturday’s Guardian, which gave us an exclusive first glimpse at the latest edition of the Democratic Audit. The picture the report paints...Posted 09 Jul 2012
Where have all the working class MPs gone?The relationship between an individual’s social background and the way they vote has become much weaker in recent times with class no longer acting as a relatively accurate predictor of party preference. Voters are now...Posted 03 Jul 2012