Electoral Commission slams Police and Crime Commissioner electionsIt’s Official! Everyone (apart from the Home Office) who has looked at the elections for police and crime commissioners (PCCs) say they should never be allowed to happen that way again. At the Electoral Reform...Posted 19 Mar 2013
Scottish Public want bigger voice in politicsLast week politicians in Scotland were queuing up to call for more power to be exercised at local level. But it seems our politicians are coming late to the party on localism. Today we launch the...Posted 12 Mar 2013
The 300 women ‘missing’ from Welsh public lifeIt’s International Women’s Day. And it seemed the right time to show just how badly women are faring in Welsh public life. Our Welsh Power Report assesses the levels of women across politics and public life,...Posted 07 Mar 2013
STV’s Second OutingIn 2007 Scotland began using the Single Transferable Vote (STV) for local government elections. The First Past the Post system – once used for all public elections in mainland Britain – was consigned to history....Posted 27 Feb 2013
Where are the women in local government?At first glance, UK local government statistics aren’t exactly the most exciting topic for a blog. But they’re really important as they give us an insight into gender and politics in the UK today. The...Posted 25 Feb 2013
Time to Discuss Local Democracy in WalesA few weeks ago, Electoral Reform Society Wales gave evidence to the Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee about the new Local Democracy Bill making its way through the National Assembly. Is the new Local...Posted 06 Feb 2013
16 days and counting to an election no one’s heard of…Another day, another disaster. We now hear that £350,000 worth of ballot papers are headed for the shredder. The farce that is the Police and Crime Commissioner Elections is continuing to thrill audiences across the country....Posted 30 Oct 2012
Politics is too important to be left to the politiciansAs the first stage in a yearlong process to imagine what a ‘Good Scottish Democracy’ might look like we asked for volunteers to take part in a discussion about the future of Scotland Democracy. ...Posted 12 Oct 2012
Cameron’s broken promise on Women’s representationWomen’s representation in government has always appeared to matter to the Prime Minister. Back in his 2005 acceptance speech as leader David Cameron spoke of the need to end the “scandalous under-representation of women” in...Posted 09 Sep 2012
Lords Reform: A failure for Britain’s political classAnd so it’s come to pass. After all the gossip the government has finally withdrawn the House of Lords Reform bill. This isn’t about the failure of one party, one government or one bill, but of...Posted 06 Aug 2012