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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

Money could flood into British politics under planned law

The Overseas Electors Bill, which returned to the Commons last week, has a sound purpose – to end the current limit on how long Britons can live abroad and still be able to vote. But,...

Posted 25 Mar 2019

Those funding our parties should live here

Digital political campaigning remains as unregulated as ever – but calls for reform are increasing

Over the weekend, Buzzfeed reported that Britain’s Future, an obscure pro-Brexit group, spent almost £350,000 on 2,600 Facebook adverts over the course of five months, micro-targeting tens of thousands of voters to get them to...

Posted 12 Mar 2019

Britain’s Future hasn’t broken any rules – indeed, this is exactly the problem

Tax ‘exiles’ are funnelling money into our political parties. It’s time to close the loophole

Here’s a fairly basic democratic principle: those who pour money into our political parties in exchange for influence should – at the very least –be based here at home. Sadly, even that low bar is...

Posted 07 Mar 2019

Britons living in tax havens and their UK companies have made political donations worth 5 million

ERS in the Press – February 2019

Another wild month in politics – from crucial Brexit votes to the apparent disintegration of Britain’s party structures. Throughout, we’ve been pointing at the elephant in the room: the crumbling state of Britain’s democracy and...

Posted 28 Feb 2019

Moving targets: What is the technical future of political campaigning?

Josh Smith, Senior Researcher at the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media, Demos Targeted online advertising has produced a fundamental shift in the ways in which political campaigns are conducted. The ability to divide...

Posted 20 Feb 2019

A new Office for Responsible Technology

Jacob Ohrvik-Stott, Researcher for Doteveryone, an independent think tank championing responsible technology for a fairer future, contributed this piece for our report Reining in the Political ‘Wild West’: Campaign Rules for the 21st Century. The...

Posted 19 Feb 2019

Reining in the tech giants – ICO’s Steve Wood in conversation with the ERS

Steve Wood, ICO Deputy Commissioner (Policy) – In conversation with the ERS Head of Communications, Josiah Mortimer for our report Reining in the Political ‘Wild West’: Campaign Rules for the 21st Century. Josiah (ERS): Do you feel...

Posted 18 Feb 2019

Increasing the resilience of our democracy against misinformation

Cassie Staines, Senior Policy Officer at the independent fact-checking charity Full-Fact contributed this piece to our report Reining in the Political ‘Wild West’: Campaign Rules for the 21st Century. There is a moral panic about ‘fake news’...

Posted 17 Feb 2019

Avoiding America’s mega-spending election model

Kyle Taylor, Founder and Director of Fair Vote Project contributed this piece to our report Reining in the Political ‘Wild West’: Campaign Rules for the 21st Century. If you are interested in a preview of what British...

Posted 16 Feb 2019