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Digital political campaigning remains as unregulated as ever – but calls for reform are increasing

Over the weekend, Buzzfeed reported that Britain’s Future, an obscure pro-Brexit group, spent almost £350,000 on 2,600 Facebook adverts over the course of five months, micro-targeting tens of thousands of voters to get them to...

Posted 12 Mar 2019

Once again, the government have ignored the consensus for Lords reform. Enough is enough

The facts surrounding the dire state of the House of Lords are clear. It is grossly oversized – the largest legislative chamber in the world outside of China. It is wasteful: in the 2010-2015 parliament,...

Posted 08 Mar 2019

Political parties need to stand more women candidates to close the political gender gap

There can be no doubt that in order to see more women elected to our political institutions, political parties need to stand more women candidates. Yet there is no official information on the diversity of...

Posted 08 Mar 2019

We should know what happens at candidate selections

Tax ‘exiles’ are funnelling money into our political parties. It’s time to close the loophole

Here’s a fairly basic democratic principle: those who pour money into our political parties in exchange for influence should – at the very least –be based here at home. Sadly, even that low bar is...

Posted 07 Mar 2019

Is there proportional representation in France?

Apart from the UK, France is the only other European democracy not to use some form of proportional representation for its state-wide elections (Here’s a list of voting systems used at the state-level in Europe)....

Posted 07 Mar 2019

ERS in the Press – February 2019

Another wild month in politics – from crucial Brexit votes to the apparent disintegration of Britain’s party structures. Throughout, we’ve been pointing at the elephant in the room: the crumbling state of Britain’s democracy and...

Posted 28 Feb 2019

With first past the post, country and city voters take turns being locked out of government

Far too often, debates around electoral reform are characterised as the idea of making two pie charts match: one pie chart represents how the country voted, the other the make-up of parliament. The 2015 general...

Posted 28 Feb 2019

Scotland needs new institutions to transform our local communities

Can you remember a time you were talking with someone and the response you got back meant that it was blatantly obvious that they hadn’t understood what you were saying? You try again, but again...

Posted 27 Feb 2019

Scotland's councils are too big and too distant

As Westminster struggles with party splits, electoral reform is back in the debate

You don’t have to listen hard to hear Westminster’s party system creaking and crumbling. This past two weeks has drawn back the curtain on an undeniable reality: the structures underpinning Parliament’s politics are falling apart....

Posted 26 Feb 2019

Moving targets: What is the technical future of political campaigning?

Josh Smith, Senior Researcher at the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media, Demos Targeted online advertising has produced a fundamental shift in the ways in which political campaigns are conducted. The ability to divide...

Posted 20 Feb 2019