200 years since the Peterloo Massacre, Westminster is still broken The events of 2019 have put the problems of Westminster’s system into sharp focus. From discussions about the Prime Minister proroguing parliament, to MPs leaving main parties to form their own (only to splinter within... Posted 16 Aug 2019
Asking Theresa May To Show ‘Restraint’ In Her Resignation Honours Misses The Point – The Lords Is Bust When even Peers are calling for an overhaul of the House of Lords, you know the chamber is broken. A few weeks ago, the Lord Speaker’s committee – set up in response to concerns over... Posted 06 Aug 2019
ERS in the Press: July 2019 July was a busy month in Westminster before MPs headed off for the summer recess. Brexit and the Conservative leadership election dominated the headlines – and we found plenty of opportunities to keep reform of... Posted 01 Aug 2019
ERS is the Press: May 2019 In a month that began and ended with elections for local councils and the European Parliament – both of which showed the changing nature of British politics and the continued decline of the two main... Posted 05 Jun 2019
Ending the Punch and Judy show: How to get a more cooperative politics There is an uncomfortable fact for those who oppose moves to a fairer voting system: all the chaos we have seen in Westminster over the past few years has been under the ‘strong and stable’... Posted 30 May 2019
Ending the Politics of Division – How We Can Build a New Democracy Ten years on from the expenses scandal that rocked trust in our politics and nearly three years since this Brexit deadlock began, Britain’s broken political system remains largely unchanged. No one can deny it: the... Posted 25 May 2019
‘This is What Democracy Looks Like’: Why campaigners are gathering in Manchester 200 years on from the Peterloo Massacre Nearly 200 years ago, thousands of working people gathered on St Peter’s Field in Manchester with a simple demand: political representation. Local magistrates tried to shut down the meeting – the cavalry charged on the... Posted 15 May 2019
Australian Senate reforms need to go further to put voters back in control Ill-thought-out plans have a habit of coming back and biting you, and it’s no different in politics. In fact, the risks of unintended consequences are even higher, as politicians on one side have an incentive... Posted 30 Apr 2019
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 usual tricks. We’ve spent the last month getting press attention for some of our biggest... Posted 29 Mar 2019
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 of bizarre House of Lords ‘by-elections’. The vote – to fill the vacant seat following... Posted 28 Mar 2019