Voters dislike disproportionate results – even when their own party benefitsAs political parties and commentators continue to digest the result of the 2019 general election, one issue that keeps coming up is how unjust Britain’s electoral system is. But how do voters feel about it?...Posted 11 Feb 2020
ERS in the Press – January 2020Following December’s General Election we have continued to make the case for a fairer, proportional voting system, highlighting the warped nature of December’s results and the negative effect of First Past the Post on our...Posted 07 Feb 2020
Ireland’s TV debates show the difference the electoral system makesOn Tuesday the 4th February, ITV’s political editor Robert Peston tweeted: The Irish leaders’ debate is really quite shocking. The three leaders have a detailed grasp of complex welfare and tax issues, they are polite...Posted 06 Feb 2020
Keir Starmer: “We’ve got to address the fact that millions of people vote in safe seats and they feel their vote doesn’t count”Keir Starmer’s backing of electoral reform puts democracy at the heart of Labour’s leadership contest From one Keir to another, support for electoral reform is growing. Labour Party Leadership frontrunner Sir Keir Starmer this morning...Posted 31 Jan 2020
People are rightly losing faith in politics, it’s time for democratic renewalA new report by the recently established Centre for the Future of Democracy at the University of Cambridge has found that dissatisfaction with democracy has reached an all-time global high. Westminster-style democracies (the UK, Australia,...Posted 31 Jan 2020
Britain’s campaign laws leave our elections open to fake news and manipulationDecember’s election was the third Westminster election in four years. Each one of those has highlighted a growing crisis facing the UK’s electoral politics. In an article published by The Guardian, Cambridge Analytica whistle-blower Brittany...Posted 29 Jan 2020
England, give young people the vote like your neighboursIf you were a 16 or 17-year-old is Scotland, you probably felt quite annoyed at being left out of December’s General Election. If it had been a Scottish Parliament or Local Council Election you would have...Posted 29 Jan 2020
What we learnt from the ERS / Open Labour leadership hustingsLabour’s leadership candidates backed a range of constitutional reforms at Sunday’s joint Open Labour/Electoral Reform Society hustings, as they were challenged on how to fix Britain’s broken political system. When asked about their views on...Posted 27 Jan 2020
How do Labour Party leadership elections work?The Labour Party leadership election formally kicked off this week as nominations for the next leader of the party opened for MPs. The party have published a list of nominations as they come in, updating...Posted 09 Jan 2020
9 things you need to know about the 2019 General ElectionYou probably heard a lot about the number of seats parties won (and lost) in December’s General Election. What was less prominent was just how poorly the results reflected how people actually voted. The ERS...Posted 24 Dec 2019