Today's referendum on AV is the culmination of a long campaign for change. Yet, AV is not a form of proportional representation and is not a system which reformers have previously called for. Whatever the referendum result, it will not end the campaign for electoral reform in the UK
An in-depth summary of party funding shows that the top three parties rely on attracting just ten or eleven large donations a year between them from a small group of rich people, plus a few companies and large trade unions. This narrow funding base raises issues of fairness. It also helps explain
An elite-level ‘fix’ to the question of party funding reform in the UK offers no prospect of tackling popular discontent with politics. Reform must be rooted in clear democratic principles.
The Coalition's proposals to reshape the UK's electoral geography by reducing the number of MPs and equalising the size of constituencies, may inflict more pain than gain, as a report by the British Academy shows.
The coalition's plans to reduce the number of constituencies in the UK to 600 and reduce their size poses a number of difficulties and will prove controversial.
After months of speculation, we have the electoral deadlock which almost every opinion poll during the campaign had predicted, but with a division of seats between Labour and the Liberal
On this morning’s edition of the Today programme, the Shadow Education Secretary, Michael Gove, was challenged on the Conservatives’ opposition to electoral reform. Gove reiterated the familiar arguments advanced
The possibility that the election might produce no clear winner has prompted a series of warnings from senior Conservative politicians that if politicians have to negotiate - or ‘haggle'
The Democratic Audit has just published a paper on what we are now learning to call 'A Balanced Parliament'.
The key points it makes are:
* Parliaments in which
The party leaders had proclaimed it as a wake-up call. They were united in their calls for urgent and far-reaching reforms. Yet, until yesterday, the only reforms achieved in the wake of the MPs expenses crisis were those establishing new rules and regulations concerning MPs expenses.
The latest poll on public attitudes to UK democracy shows a profound hunger for change, but no growth in support for particular reforms.
