Let’s postpone bizarre peer by-elections for good Even in today’s climate, hereditary peer by-elections are among the more absurd aspects of British politics. Following the retirement of the Earl of Selborne from the House of Lords after almost 50 years in office,... Posted 01 Apr 2020
Another chance to scrap an absurd Parliamentary quirk A Bill to phase out one of Parliament’s more absurd procedures is making some progress, after being talked out of time by Lords last year. Lord Grocott’s Hereditary Peers (Abolition of By-Elections) Bill underwent its... Posted 17 Mar 2020
Lording it over us: Peers’ expenses free-for-all continues It’s a story we’ve heard too many times: unelected Lords cashing it in. This weekend, fresh revelations in the Sunday Times found that in the year to March 2019 peers claimed an average of £30,827... Posted 09 Mar 2020
Oh Lord… Defender of hereditary peers is made minister for political reform Last week’s government reshuffle saw some strange moves. Boris Johnson appointed a former speechwriter to John Major, Lord True, as a minister overseeing constitutional reform. A strange move because Lord True is one of just... Posted 19 Feb 2020
Spiralling size and cost of the Lords shows it’s time for an overhaul The House of Lords has again come under scrutiny this week as the Times reports that peers will see their daily pay rise by 3.1% to £323 per day if they attend from April. This development comes... Posted 13 Feb 2020
ERS in the Press – January 2020 Following December’s General Election we have continued to make the case for a fairer, proportional voting system, highlighting the warped nature of December’s results and the negative effect of First Past the Post on our... Posted 07 Feb 2020
People are rightly losing faith in politics, it’s time for democratic renewal A new report by the recently established Centre for the Future of Democracy at the University of Cambridge has found that dissatisfaction with democracy has reached an all-time global high. Westminster-style democracies (the UK, Australia,... Posted 31 Jan 2020
What we learnt from the ERS / Open Labour leadership hustings Labour’s leadership candidates backed a range of constitutional reforms at Sunday’s joint Open Labour/Electoral Reform Society hustings, as they were challenged on how to fix Britain’s broken political system. When asked about their views on... Posted 27 Jan 2020
It will take more than moving the Lords up north to mend our broken politics The phrase ‘moving the deckchairs’ has never felt so apt. Over the weekend, we learnt that Boris Johnson is mulling plans to move the House of Lords permanently to York. Or maybe Birmingham. Speaking of... Posted 23 Jan 2020
ERS in the Press: 2019’s electoral reform news roundup As the year draws to a close, here’s a snapshot of some of the work we’ve been doing at the ERS to put real political reform on the agenda in 2019. January We kicked off... Posted 23 Dec 2019