The Reformer

The new rotten boroughs?

How would you like to live in a one party state? You may wonder why anyone would ask given that...

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...

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 –...

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...

Pyongyang North Korea Bronze statue

North Korean elections: The veneer of democracy

This weekend the North Korean ‘election’ took place. Of course, it wasn’t exactly democratic; it wasn’t really even an election....

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...

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...

Wojtek Gurak

Size Matters when it comes to the National Assembly for Wales

How many politicians does it take to scrutinise a government? As it turns out, you need more than there are...

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...

Ballot Papers

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...

Senedd Cymru Welsh Parliament

The ban on dual candidacy damages scrutiny in the Welsh Assembly

Some more good news from today’s Queen’s Speech. And this time it’s for something that’s actually in it. The Coalition Government...

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....