ERS in the Press – Coverage we’ve secured in the GE campaignYou might have noticed that there’s a general election approaching. Whilst the date of the election may have taken us all a little by surprise, the ERS communications team were ready to go and making...Posted 25 Jun 2024
Manifestos outside the big two parties: Putting democracy on the agendaLast week we looked at the sections of the Labour and Conservative manifestos that touched on democracy-related issues. This week, we turn our attention to the other parties that are standing candidates in virtually all...Posted 19 Jun 2024
Labour manifesto: Encouraging first steps – but we need to address rock bottom trust in politicsThis week we had startling and deeply concerning news about the state of our democracy. A study from the National Centre for Social Research concluded that: ‘All in all, it appears that people’s trust in...Posted 13 Jun 2024
Conservative manifesto: Missing pledges to improve our democracyThe launch of the Conservative manifesto yesterday was conspicuously light on democratic policy with little mention by way of reforms desperately needed to strengthen our democracy. Voter ID Policy The Conservatives made only one proposal...Posted 13 Jun 2024
TV Debates have become an important part of our elections, let’s do them rightThe first election debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer will be on our TV screens tonight, at 9pm on ITV. We’ve already seen a debate between party leaders in Scotland (none of whom are...Posted 04 Jun 2024
Over 100 seats haven’t changed hands for 100 years or moreWe often hear that politics is unpredictable, that anything can happen in the upcoming election – but the reality is that hundreds of seats across the country haven’t changed hands in decades. While the MP...Posted 03 Jun 2024
Could this be the last general election that excludes 16 and 17 year olds?At the Electoral Reform Society, we have long been advocates of extending the right to vote to 16 and 17-year-olds in general elections. So, we were pleased to see that, when asked on the campaign...Posted 29 May 2024
Changing boundaries shouldn’t change election resultsFor the past 30 years, political scientists Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher have been investigating how new boundaries will impact the political makeup of Parliament. Whenever new constituency maps are designed, they estimate what the...Posted 16 Jan 2024
The Non-Battleground Election: Millions of voters are ignoredLast week, the Labour Party started the process of selecting their general election candidates for 211 ‘non-battleground’ constituencies in England. The description of these seats as being ‘non-battleground’ is telling, implying that Labour will not...Posted 18 Dec 2023