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New Zealand heads to the polls on November 7 and as a country with similar political traditions to the UK, it is always worth looking at what is happening. The parties that loosely make up the two blocs have been competitive in opinion polls, so it’s a harder election than most to call. The big difference between […]
The idea of an independent commission on electoral reform has been gaining traction lately, with nearly 200 MPs calling for one. But with a prime minister who understands the need for a fair voting system, do we still need one? Our new Prime Minister has set out his view on the path to introducing proportional […]
July saw the transition from one UK Prime Minister to another for the fifth time since 2019. Andy Burnham stepped through the threshold of Number 10, followed by a flurry of announcements on various issues – from the cost of living, to social care reform, to devolution. Seven of this month’s polls were conducted since […]
Andy Burnham began his Premiership with promises of change and a break with the past way of doing politics. Which is why one of his government’s first decisions deserves scrutiny. Anas Sarwar, the outgoing leader of the Scottish Labour Party, has been appointed to the House of Lords in order to serve as a Minister […]
I had the opportunity to visit Denmark’s democracy festival, Folkemødet, (translated as the People’s Meeting), this June. Representatives from Perth and Kinross council, Argyll and Bute council and I, swapped the Scottish summer rain for the sunshine of the Baltic island of Bornholm, where I got to see what attracts almost 65,000 people each year to […]
Back in 2015 we published Deal or No Deal which looked at public attitudes to political finance following the failed cross-party talks on implementing the Committee on Standards in Public Life recommendations, including a cap on donations. Our research found a receptive audience for party funding reform including donations caps, spending caps and greater public […]
For much of the post-war period, Italy was famous for having a very proportional electoral system – but this all changed in 1993 when they created a system that mixed First Past the Post and Proportional Representation, nicknamed ‘Mattarellum’. Since then the Italians have changed their voting system on a semi-regular basis, as politicians try […]
Andy Burnham’s rise to Downing Street means that for the first time in modern history we have a prime minister who is openly committed to proportional representation. In recent years the new Labour leader has become one of the most passionate advocates for reforming Westminster’s electoral system. Yet, his ambitions for democratic reform do not […]
This week we are witnessing an increasingly familiar sight – a change of prime minister. Keir Starmer has left office just over two years after winning a landslide and made way for Andy Burnham. During Starmer’s time in Number 10, there have been some significant wins for democracy that are worth marking, many of which […]
At election time, millions of us arrive at the polling station in a conflicted state of mind – do I vote for the party I most believe in, or do I vote tactically to influence the result? It’s a choice that feels less like democracy and more like damage control. When the system nudges voters […]
