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Wales is leading the way on democratic reform. The Prime Minister should take note

The Welsh Government have just launched proposals that could revitalise democracy. But they could also send shock-waves to Westminster. In 2014, 16 and 17 year olds in Scotland won the right to vote in the...

Posted 30 Jan 2018

How we vote has to change if our voices are to be heard

It came as no surprise this week that the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer revealed nearly three in five people (57%) in the UK feel their views are not being represented in British politics. It is the inevitable consequence...

Posted 24 Jan 2018

Survey results add weight to argument for Votes at 16

When reformers argue in favour of extending the vote to 16 and 17-year-olds, they often do so by stating what other things those within that bracket are already doing (paying taxes, driving etc.) For many people these arguments will ring true – but for...

Posted 22 Jan 2018

Doubts over turnout figures could have serious implications

Turnout is a vital measure for understanding our relationship with politics, whether it be low or high. If people do not vote, it tells us they are being failed by politics. If people do vote in large numbers, then it can be argued the Government which emerges after an...

Posted 19 Jan 2018

Full recall would be a free-for-all of unintended consequences

A spate of recent controversies has renewed demands for ‘full recall’ – where ten percent of voters can sign a petition, triggering a local referendum on whether an MP should lose their seat and a...

Posted 19 Jan 2018

100 years after women won the right to vote, there’s still a long way to go

2018 marks one hundred years since a major landmark in the history of our democracy – the first time women in the UK had the right to vote. The Suffrage movement saw women organise and...

Posted 17 Jan 2018

A portrait of the leader of the Women's Suffragette movement, Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst (left) and her daughters Christabel (centre) and Sylvia (right) at Waterloo Station, London. Mrs Pankhurst was about to leave for a lecture tour of the USA and Canada.

Politicians should stop presuming and start listening on Brexit

It is hard to turn on the TV now without one politician or another telling us what the ‘British people’ want from Brexit. On one side, one argues that only leaving the single market will...

Posted 12 Jan 2018

Voting patterns in the House of Lords rubbish claims of its independence

Article first published by Politics.co.uk. It is anticipated that Theresa May will appoint up to a dozen Tory peers this month – which could be joined by a handful of Labour members and some from the DUP. It is...

Posted 11 Jan 2018

Referendum spending is a murky world – when it should be crystal clear

Negotiations on the UK’s exit from the European Union will dominate much of the political agenda this year. But 18 months on from the Brexit referendum, questions are still being asked about whether campaigners played by...

Posted 08 Jan 2018

Political parties are too reliant on big donors – and it has to change

Huge swathes of the public believe big donors hold too much political sway – and yet again it has been revealed just how reliant parties are on the cash of very few. The Mirror today published research findings showing that 39% of...

Posted 05 Jan 2018