The Reformer

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Electoral Reform in Westminster

How we vote has to change if our voices are to be heard

It came as no surprise this week that the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer revealed nearly three in five people (57%) in the...

Votes at 16

Survey results add weight to argument for Votes at 16

When reformers argue in favour of extending the vote to 16 and 17-year-olds, they often do so by stating what other things those within that bracket...

Electoral Reform in Westminster

Full recall would be a free-for-all of unintended consequences

January 19, 2018

A spate of recent controversies has renewed demands for ‘full recall’ – where ten percent of voters can sign a...

A portrait of the leader of the Women's Suffragette movement, Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst (left) and her daughters Christabel (centre) and Sylvia (right) at Waterloo Station, London. Mrs Pankhurst was about to leave for a lecture tour of the USA and Canada.

Women in Politics

100 years after women won the right to vote, there’s still a long way to go

2018 marks one hundred years since a major landmark in the history of our democracy – the first time women...

Citizens' Assembly on Brexit

Politicians should stop presuming and start listening on Brexit

It is hard to turn on the TV now without one politician or another telling us what the ‘British people’...

House of Lords

Voting patterns in the House of Lords rubbish claims of its independence

January 11, 2018

Article first published by Politics.co.uk. It is anticipated that Theresa May will appoint up to a dozen Tory peers this month –...

Enriching Referendums

Referendum spending is a murky world – when it should be crystal clear

January 8, 2018

Negotiations on the UK’s exit from the European Union will dominate much of the political agenda this year. But 18...

Money in Politics

Political parties are too reliant on big donors – and it has to change

January 5, 2018

Huge swathes of the public believe big donors hold too much political sway – and yet again it has been revealed just how reliant parties...

Electoral Reform in Westminster

Ministers are ignoring the elephant in the room when it comes to boundaries

The government’s Minister for the Constitution has claimed that millions of voters living in oversized constituencies are being under-represented. Speaking about the current boundaries,...

House of Lords

There’s a lobbying scandal brewing in the House of Lords

The House of Lords has long been a home for party donors and lobbyists. But now it turns out even...

Citizens' Assembly on Brexit

There’s another way of doing Brexit

By Dr Alan Renwick A battle broke out in Parliament last week, as MPs across the House successfully pushed for...

ERS Cymru

Wales needs a stronger Senedd that’s fit for the future

December 12, 2017

In 20 years of its existence – through the growth in the Assembly’s responsibilities to the expansion of the Welsh...