A future Labour government would be right to use Citizens’ Assemblies This morning it was revealed in The Times that Sue Gray, Keir Starmer’s Chief of Staff and former leading Civil Servant, is considering the use of Citizens’ Assemblies. Gray made the comments by referring to... Posted 19 Feb 2024
Lesley Riddoch’s State of Scottish Democracy lecture Thank you to everyone who made it along to hear author and broadcaster, Lesley Riddoch, present the second of our annual ERS State of Scottish Democracy lecture. We are pleased to publish a video of... Posted 28 Sep 2023
ERS Scotland’s State of Scottish Democracy lecture draws crowd in Glasgow Thank you to everyone who made it along to Govan’s Pearce Institute to hear Professor James Mitchell present the first-ever ERS Scotland State of Scottish Democracy lecture. The event was a real success. We are... Posted 28 Nov 2022
Don’t miss one of Scotland’s leading political experts in new annual lecture ERS Scotland is hosting the inaugural State of Scottish Democracy lecture next week. The event takes place on Thursday 17th November, in Govan’s Pearce Institute, and will be addressed by Professor James Mitchell. The idea... Posted 11 Nov 2022
ERS Scotland: Our plans for the years ahead At ERS Scotland we are constantly monitoring the political seas and updating our course to make sure we have the proper heading. Following this year’s local elections, the elections to the Scottish Parliament in 2021,... Posted 24 May 2022
Scottish local democracy can build and strengthen our communities Democracy is the right for people to decide how the place where they live is run. But too few people now believe that this right is being honoured, too few believe that they decide and... Posted 13 May 2022
COP26 shows we need to democratise to decarbonise In the run up to the COP26 climate change conference, a coalition of leading democracy organisations joined together on a campaign to put strong democracy at the heart of any response. The campaign’s message was... Posted 26 Nov 2021
A Scottish House of Citizens would be the opposite of Westminster’s institutionally corrupt Lords ERS Scotland and the Sortition Foundation have ramped up calls for ‘House of Citizens’ – a revising chamber made up of ordinary voters – in Scotland, following revelations that a Conservative party donor gave the... Posted 03 Jun 2021
Only real local democracy can rebuild our communities The last twelve months have changed the way many of us think about our everyday lives. The lockdowns necessitated by the pandemic have made the world feel smaller and turned many people’s minds to a... Posted 09 Apr 2021
Local communities must be the foundation on which we build Scotland’s recovery The pandemic has given us a fresh insight into what we already knew about Scotland’s communities; people will sacrifice their time and resources to aid their neighbours. But that sense of community cannot be taken... Posted 26 Mar 2021