News and Comment

The latest news and commentary from the Electoral Reform Society.

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The new rotten boroughs?

How would you like to live in a one party state? You may wonder why anyone would ask given that this is the UK, not North Korea.  After all, we can all vote tomorrow if...

Posted 21 May 2014

38,000 denied a vote

Tens of thousands of people across England are being denied a vote in next week’s local elections, owing to the undemocratic phenomenon of uncontested seats. In this year’s elections there are seven wards which are...

Posted 16 May 2014

Just three out of 22 Cabinet ministers are females

What a dispiriting week for women. Following Maria Miller’s resignation, just three out of 22 Cabinet ministers are females – putting the UK government at a 15-year low and near rock bottom in comparison with...

Posted 11 Apr 2014

Defending the postal vote

A BBC radio programme on postal vote fraud was aired last night, and it contained a call from a high court judge to scrap ‘on-demand’ postal votes. This knee-jerk reaction to the problem of fraud represents...

Posted 12 Mar 2014

We need to talk about PMQs

Prime Minister’s Questions hit the headlines last week following a Hansard Society report that found nearly half of their respondents thought it ‘too noisy and aggressive’. The Speaker, John Bercow, supported the report, criticising the ‘orchestrated barracking’...

Posted 26 Feb 2014

Wales and the Lobbying Bill

The potential effects of the Lobbying Bill on democracy at the UK level have been widely discussed, and it is difficult to cover the myriad problems the Bill poses in a single blog. This is...

Posted 24 Oct 2013

Only one in five ministers are female

In 2009, David Cameron pledged that a third of his ministers would be women. But even today, after a reshuffle which has increased the number of women in government by three, still only one in five ministers...

Posted 08 Oct 2013

Would you back ‘None of the Above’?

Following the county council elections we’ve been hearing a lot about ‘None of the Above’. The IPPR recently flagged None of the Above – or NOTA – as a part of their plan to boost youth...

Posted 14 May 2013

Ballot Papers

Why 32,000 people will be denied a vote in May

On Thursday 6 May, 27 county councils and 8 unitary authorities in England and Anglesey in Wales will hold elections. Sadly, they give us yet another example of the woeful state of local government. The...

Posted 10 Apr 2013