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People are rightly losing faith in politics, it’s time for democratic renewal

A new report by the recently established Centre for the Future of Democracy at the University of Cambridge has found that dissatisfaction with democracy has reached an all-time global high. Westminster-style democracies (the UK, Australia,...

Posted 31 Jan 2020

The broken Westminster system is at the root of this dissatisfaction

Britain’s campaign laws leave our elections open to fake news and manipulation

December’s election was the third Westminster election in four years. Each one of those has highlighted a growing crisis facing the UK’s electoral politics. In an article published by The Guardian, Cambridge Analytica whistle-blower Brittany...

Posted 29 Jan 2020

Parties and third-party campaigners spent around £5.9 million on Facebook

England, give young people the vote like your neighbours

If you were a 16 or 17-year-old is Scotland, you probably felt quite annoyed at being left out of December’s General Election. If it had been a Scottish Parliament or Local Council Election you would have...

Posted 29 Jan 2020

A generation in England and Northern Ireland are being left behind

What we learnt from the ERS / Open Labour leadership hustings

Labour’s leadership candidates backed a range of constitutional reforms at Sunday’s joint Open Labour/Electoral Reform Society hustings, as they were challenged on how to fix Britain’s broken political system. When asked about their views on...

Posted 27 Jan 2020

Keir (Hardie) was a strong supporter of electoral reform

Labour, from its beginnings 100 years ago has promoted democratic reform. Keir Hardie was a supporter of the Electoral Reform Society (then called the Proportional Representation Society). Hardie, a leading Scottish socialist, helped found the...

Posted 24 Jan 2020

It will take more than moving the Lords up north to mend our broken politics

The phrase ‘moving the deckchairs’ has never felt so apt. Over the weekend, we learnt that Boris Johnson is mulling plans to move the House of Lords permanently to York. Or maybe Birmingham. Speaking of...

Posted 23 Jan 2020

Italian far-right fail to bring in First Past the Post

On Thursday last week, Italy’s Constitutional Court rejected a request by the far-right League Party to hold a referendum to impose Westminster style First Past the Post (FPTP) for elections to both the Chamber of Deputies...

Posted 21 Jan 2020

The campaign for a fairer franchise just secured a major victory

16 and 17 year olds in Wales have officially secured the right to vote for Senedd elections, after a crucial piece of legislation received Royal Assent on Wednesday. 16 and 17 year olds in Wales...

Posted 15 Jan 2020

How do Labour Party leadership elections work?

The Labour Party leadership election formally kicked off this week as nominations for the next leader of the party opened for MPs. The party have published a list of nominations as they come in, updating...

Posted 09 Jan 2020

Because of the AV system voters won’t need to vote tactically

9 things you need to know about the 2019 General Election

You probably heard a lot about the number of seats parties won (and lost) in December’s General Election. What was less prominent was just how poorly the results reflected how people actually voted. The ERS...

Posted 24 Dec 2019