The Reformer

Election Cancelled

Democracy cancelled: How parties have captured hundreds of seats before local election day

Large parts of England are effectively democracy deserts, with hundreds of thousands of potential voters denied real choice in this...

Ministers can’t let themselves of the hook when it comes to tackling the social media ‘Wild West’

Last week the government launched a consultation into tackling ‘online harm’. It’s the first step towards dealing with the tech...

Votes are chewed up by the meat-grinder of Westminster’s voting system

Why A General Election Won’t Solve The Brexit Deadlock

One piece of news got buried last week. While Labour held on to Newport West in Thursday’s by-election, the full...

If you vote in your first election, you’ll probably vote for life

In a Snap Brexit Election, 16 and 17 Year-Olds Must Have the Vote

Young people are refusing to be ignored – the recent school climate strikes and campaigning on Brexit have shown that....

ERS in the Press – March 2019

Brexit might be dominating the news, but the rolling constitutional crisis that we call Westminster is still up to its...

Binary indicative votes were never going to achieve a consensus

This is an expanded version of a letter from our Senior Director,  Willie Sullivan, that was published in the Times...

House of Lords

While MPs debate our democratic future, another aristocrat takes a seat in Parliament for life

On Wednesday – while elected MPs debated Britain’s future – the results came out for the latest in a series...

Future Voices: Delivering on a Parliament that works for Wales (Welsh Labour Fringe)

With the 20th anniversary of the Assembly upon us, how should it evolve further to become a parliament that delivers...

no evidence of voter fraud

New figures demolish the government’s argument for mandatory voter ID

The government’s case for excluding voters who lack ID is getting weaker by the day. Last week the Electoral Commission...

Money could flood into British politics under planned law

The Overseas Electors Bill, which returned to the Commons last week, has a sound purpose – to end the current...

Put simply, the government is running scared

Local citizens’ assemblies could break our political deadlock – but the government have vetoed them

Last summer, ministers announced genuinely exciting plans for piloting ‘deliberative democracy’ across the UK. The plan was to use a...

These three peers should not be allowed to stand in the way of democracy

In a week dominated by Brexit, it’s easy to forget that there are other topics still on the political agenda....