Constitutional Commission on the Future of Wales’s report is a welcome contribution Last Friday, after two years of work, the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales presented its final report at the Senedd. It recognises the urgent need to improve Welsh democracy and we welcome... Posted 25 Jan 2024
Lessons not Learnt: New report on 2015, 2017 and 2019 elections The last nine years have witnessed three general elections, a nationwide referendum and no less than five prime ministers. At times our politics has felt chaotic, and the output of the Westminster electoral system has... Posted 23 Jan 2024
First past the post distorts public opinion on small boats Last week’s YouGov MRP poll showing Labour on course for a 1997-style general election victory created a big splash. In addition to asking about people’s general election voting intention, YouGov asked respondents about their views... Posted 22 Jan 2024
ERS in the Press – January 2024 Despite being one of our country’s shortest ever Prime Ministers Liz Truss dominated the headlines over the festive period. The ERS press team were ready and waiting to get our arguments around the House of... Posted 18 Jan 2024
Changing boundaries shouldn’t change election results For the past 30 years, political scientists Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher have been investigating how new boundaries will impact the political makeup of Parliament. Whenever new constituency maps are designed, they estimate what the... Posted 16 Jan 2024
140 years of winning electoral reform On a chilly evening exactly 140 years ago, a diverse group gathered at 7 Clarges Street, Westminster. Brought together by the Victorian naturalist, archaeologist and polymath Sir John Lubbock, it was clear to them that the... Posted 16 Jan 2024
The UK’s shortest serving PM hands out peerages to friends and supporters In the days between Christmas and New Year, the government tried to quietly slip out some bad news – it hoped many people would be too distracted by remnant cheeseboards and left-over Turkey to notice... Posted 02 Jan 2024
Which is the best electoral system for the House of Lords? Whenever the issue of creating an elected Second Chamber comes up, a common question is how it should be elected. Thankfully, one of the areas of agreement on Lords reform over the years has been... Posted 27 Dec 2023
How many peers are there in the House of Lords – and how many does it need? One of the unique features of our currently second chamber, apart from it being unelected and still partially based on inherited titles, is that its membership is huge. At over 800 peers in total, not... Posted 21 Dec 2023
The Non-Battleground Election: Millions of voters are ignored Last week, the Labour Party started the process of selecting their general election candidates for 211 ‘non-battleground’ constituencies in England. The description of these seats as being ‘non-battleground’ is telling, implying that Labour will not... Posted 18 Dec 2023