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ERS in the Press – October 2020

This month has seen a renewed interest in proportional representation internationally. Willie Sullivan backed up the case for a fairer voting system in Canada, drawing on his experience in Scotland. “If you want a system...

Posted 29 Oct 2020

As the Scottish Government closes the ‘dark ads’ loophole, Westminster must follow suit

For too long now, online political campaigning in Britain has gone effectively unregulated – to the benefit of well-funded, secretive groups, and to the detriment of voters. Despite the rapid rise of online political ads as a campaign tool, governments...

Posted 29 Oct 2020

2019 must be the last election with voters left in the dark

Tackling online harms to our democracy must be a priority

Last week, the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee criticised the government for its repeated delays in publishing legislation to tackle online harms. In a statement calling for urgent action, committee...

Posted 20 Oct 2020

The white paper makes scant references to online harms to our democracy

Democracy and ‘deterrence’: How out-of-date campaign rules leave the door open to turnout suppression

Presidential elections tend to highlight the best and worst of US democracy. In 2016, for instance, the winner of the popular vote did not win the election, due to the electoral college system – a...

Posted 20 Oct 2020

Elections should be about winning voters, not make them give up on voting entirely

ERS in the Press – September 2020

As the government continues to implement new restrictions to fight the second wave of coronavirus, the cracks in Britain’s political system continue to grow behind the curtain. In September we released new research on party...

Posted 02 Oct 2020

Cross-party figures unite to call for transparency in ‘Wild West’ online campaigning

Political figures across the spectrum have backed our calls for reform of Britain’s ‘wild west’ election campaign rules following the launch of our latest report.

Posted 25 Sep 2020

Conservative, Labour, SNP, Green and Lib Dem figures back our calls

ERS reveals the scale of secretive online campaigning during last year’s election

Democracy in the Dark – our new report commissioned from two of the UK’s leading election finance academics reveals a major rise in online spending during the 2019 general election – with little transparency over...

Posted 24 Sep 2020

Our elections watchdog needs strengthening, not scrapping

You’d think given the rising tide of disinformation, dodgy donations and dark ads online, the government might be getting serious about empowering our elections watchdog. Instead, the Conservative Party has actually issued a call to...

Posted 03 Sep 2020

Abolishing the Electoral Commission would be a dangerous backwards step

Britain moves closer to shutting down ‘dark ads’ – but we need action now

The government has today unveiled new proposals that would require parties and political campaigners to display a digital imprint on online political advertisements. This would bring online ads in line with offline election material, which...

Posted 12 Aug 2020