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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

Support for electoral reform is strong at the Liberal Democrat’s 2023 conference

Heading to the Liberal Democrats’ 2023 conference in Bournemouth to promote electoral reform is not the hardest task I’ve been handed in my working life! Saying that, our task was more to find out if they...

Posted 28 Sep 2023

Electoral Commission estimate 8 million missing from electoral roll

This week, the Electoral Commission published a report highlighting how millions of people are missing from Britain’s electoral registers. The report details how up to 8 million people are not correctly registered and are at...

Posted 21 Sep 2023

We need UK-wide automatic voter registration

Welsh Government introduce Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill

Next year the Senedd will mark a quarter of a century since its establishment. For many of those 25 years it has been apparent that the Senedd is too small. At just 60 members the...

Posted 18 Sep 2023

Good scrutiny pays for itself and poor scrutiny leads to poor decisions going unchallenged

Voter ID rules criticised by MPs, election watchdog and election administrators

This week three separate independent reports have exposed the extent of the unnecessary damage voter ID has wrought to our democracy. Voter ID was rushed through for the local elections in May which meant voters...

Posted 15 Sep 2023

The Government needs to scrap this unnecessary and damaging policy

The Mid Bedfordshire by-election shows how First Past the Post warps our politics

It finally happened. After weeks of speculation and, more latterly, mounting criticism, Nadine Dorries officially resigned her seat in Mid Bedfordshire, triggering yet another by-election. Since the former culture secretary announced her resignation back before...

Posted 29 Aug 2023

News and Comment

Lesley Riddoch’s State of Scottish Democracy lecture

Support for electoral reform is strong at the Liberal Democrat’s 2023 conference

Electoral Commission estimate 8 million missing from electoral roll

Welsh Government introduce Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill

Voter ID rules criticised by MPs, election watchdog and election administrators

The Mid Bedfordshire by-election shows how First Past the Post warps our politics

Short, long, or in-between: How long do parliaments last?

Resignation honours are the worst, but all patronage is bad

Voters trusted themselves to vote at 16 – let’s expand the franchise

Liz Truss’ resignation honours could be a turning point for reform