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Does Ireland use proportional representation?

Ireland has a long history of using proportional representation and, specifically, the Single Transferable Vote (STV). STV is the Electoral Reform Society’s preferred electoral system. Rather than one person representing everyone in a small area,...

Posted 11 Dec 2018

Building a better democracy – 2018 and the Electoral Reform Society

As a sense of crisis dominates national life, electoral reformers offer an alternative to the way we do politics in the UK. The shadow of the last three general elections is cast wide over Westminster,...

Posted 10 Dec 2018

How does mandatory voter ID disenfranchise the public?

The government is set to face a legal challenge to its plans to ban people without ID from voting across the UK – starting with the trials it intends to run at the 2019 local...

Posted 04 Dec 2018

The TV Brexit debate tantrums show why party leaders shouldn’t be able to dictate the format

In an age where much of what we see and read about politics is micro-targeted and atomised, TV leaders’ debates offer a rare shared event for supporters of all parties – one reason why the...

Posted 03 Dec 2018

ERS in the Press – November 2018

Here is just a highlight of the coverage our campaigns have received in the press this month. MPs call for end to ‘political gender gap’ at Westminster We coordinated the media for the Centenary Action Group’s campaign...

Posted 30 Nov 2018

Why are there Bishops in the House of Lords?

When most people think of Bishops they imagine a man or woman saying prayers in a cathedral, not making the laws that govern all of us. But there are Bishops today who sit in the...

Posted 29 Nov 2018

The future of Welsh democracy? Interviews with Welsh leadership candidates

In just a few week’s time Wales will have its next First Minister in place, with a three way race currently being fought by Mark Drakeford, Vaughan Gething and Eluned Morgan. In all the coverage...

Posted 20 Nov 2018

A so-called by-election is showing the Lords up as a disaster for democracy

Here’s a strange fact, a week ahead of the centenary of women’s right to stand for Parliament: 90 seats in the Palace of Westminster are effectively reserved for men. Voting has just begun for the...

Posted 15 Nov 2018

We know the gender pay gap – what about the political gender gap?

Next Wednesday we’ll mark 100 years since Parliament passed legislation enabling women (over 21) to become MPs for the first time. Sadly, since that landmark legislation, there has been a grand total of just 491...

Posted 15 Nov 2018

Foreign influence, not voter fraud, is the biggest threat to our democracy

“Do we need to start messaging ‘widespread reports of election fraud’, so we are positively set up for the recount regardless of the final number?” wrote one Republican businessman earlier this year. “Yes” came the...

Posted 12 Nov 2018