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Early indications suggest Welsh voting pilots went well

In May’s local elections, four areas in Wales trialled a different way of voting – allowing people to cast their vote before election day. As well as polling stations being open on the Thursday 5...

Posted 05 Aug 2022

We need to be looking at removing other barriers to voting in Wales

It’s time to scrap the tradition of resignation honours

Boris Johnson cannot be allowed to use his final days in power to pack the Lords with his supporters and allies. Boris Johnson’s days in Downing Street are numbered but that hasn’t stopped him planning...

Posted 29 Jul 2022

Only a fully democratic second chamber, can provide the accountability we need

Success as Labour vote overwhelmingly to increase the size of the Senedd

Welsh Labour members voted overwhelmingly on Saturday to back a new package of reforms to modernise the Senedd. This is the culmination of nearly 20 years of discussions around reforming the Welsh Parliament, particularly in...

Posted 07 Jul 2022

A step closer to the full-time parliament Wales deserves

Two aristocrats have won the right to make laws for life with just 27 votes

Just weeks after 70,000 people cast their votes to elect two new MPs in the Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton by-elections, two hereditary peers were gifted the life-long right to make the laws we all...

Posted 07 Jul 2022

A system more suited to a private members' club than our parliament

Proportional representation would end the scourge of tactical voting

The losses in Wakefield and in Tiverton and Honiton, where the Liberal Democrats overturned a 24,000 Conservative majority, were both the result of declining support for Johnson’s government, but also it would appear, the result of widescale tactical voting....

Posted 03 Jul 2022

Tactical voting is often presented as the answer, but the truth is it is just a symptom

The UK’s biggest union just passed a motion in support of proportional representation

Delegates at UNISON’s National Delegate Conference have just backed a motion calling on the UK’s biggest union to ‘reject First Past the Post’ and for the adoption of PR for UK general elections. The vote,...

Posted 17 Jun 2022

Overwhelming majority of UNISON delegates back motion to reject First Past the Post

How do elections work for France’s parliament, the French National Assembly?

Fresh from re-electing Emmanuel Macron as president on 24 April 2022, French voters are now returning to the polls on the 12 and 19 June to elect a new parliament. Historically, presidential and legislative elections...

Posted 30 May 2022

France’s Two-Round system frequently produces highly disproportional results

Wales can lead the way and deliver a parliament fit for the 21st Century

Reform of the Senedd has been discussed since its inception. When it opened in 1999 it had just 60 members, no government function and limited powers. While the powers of the Senedd and the function...

Posted 18 May 2022

We have a chance to create a new Welsh democracy Lets do it properly

Scottish local democracy can build and strengthen our communities

Democracy is the right for people to decide how the place where they live is run. But too few people now believe that this right is being honoured, too few believe that they decide and...

Posted 13 May 2022

We can revive local democracy in Scotland

Voters’ views warped across England and Wales as First Past the Post holds back elections

Elections happened across the UK yesterday, with polls in Northern Ireland Assembly and local elections for all of Scotland and Wales plus large parts of England. Voters in Northern Ireland and Scotland used fair, proportional...

Posted 06 May 2022