Pressure is growing for a ‘virtual Parliament’ to hold politicians to accountWith Parliament now on a pause for four weeks, serious questions are being asked about how life-changing decisions will be scrutinised at this time of crisis. In March, Parliament voted through a raft of emergency...Posted 02 Apr 2020
How other parliaments are handling the coronavirus outbreakThe scale of the coronavirus challenge is almost unprecedented in modern Britain. It also presents enormous new challenges for how democracy operates amid a pandemic. This week, the Cabinet met for the first time without...Posted 01 Apr 2020
Let’s postpone bizarre peer by-elections for goodEven in today’s climate, hereditary peer by-elections are among the more absurd aspects of British politics. Following the retirement of the Earl of Selborne from the House of Lords after almost 50 years in office,...Posted 01 Apr 2020
Could the Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland change how politics is done for good?A new way of doing democracy is being trialled in Scotland – and the ERS is at the heart of it. Since October, over 100 members of the Scottish public have been meeting regularly to...Posted 20 Mar 2020
Parliament must ensure proper scrutiny amid coronavirus crisisParliament’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has identified the need for sweeping changes in how Westminster operates to protect MPs and staff from the spread of the virus. The practicalities of squeezing 650 men and...Posted 19 Mar 2020
2019 General Election ResultsIn an election campaign characterised by uncertainty and volatility, it came as a surprise to many that the result would deliver such a decisive majority for one party. The Conservative Party made a net gain...Posted 19 Mar 2020
Little evidence to suggest that electoral pacts had ‘material impact on the result’Last week I wrote about tactical voting at the 2019 General Election, after the ERS revealed that almost a third of voters did not feel they were able to vote for the party they actually...Posted 11 Mar 2020
Lording it over us: Peers’ expenses free-for-all continuesIt’s a story we’ve heard too many times: unelected Lords cashing it in. This weekend, fresh revelations in the Sunday Times found that in the year to March 2019 peers claimed an average of £30,827...Posted 09 Mar 2020
Ignored and unrepresented: Report reveals how Westminster’s electoral system continues to fail votersSomething is deeply wrong when over 70% of votes count for nothing. That’s what Westminster’s voting system did in December’s election, according to a damning new analysis from the ERS. Of 32 million votes cast,...Posted 02 Mar 2020
Voters Left Voiceless – The 2019 General ElectionFor all the talk of December’s poll as a ‘People versus Parliament’ election, it looks like neither won. 22.6 million. That’s the number of votes that didn’t count towards the result in December’s General Election,...Posted 02 Mar 2020