There were a total of 17 parties and 449 candidates standing in the 2023 New Zealand General Election. I went to bed on Saturday night at midnight, feeling quite sick…
16 Oct, 2023
Proportional Representation
29 Sep, 2023
What the Green Party wants from a Progressive Alliance
I think it would be fair to say that the idea of a Progressive Alliance originated in Green circles. Caroline Lucas made the case following the miserable election result in…
08 Jun, 2023
Caroline Lucas was the first Green MP – but she must not be the last
Politics is about ideas, movements and moments. But it is always about people – about political leaders. Caroline Lucas has been, and will continue to be, an inspiring political leader…
02 Jun, 2023
The illusion of ‘one person one vote’
In a fair two-party voting system, whoever gets the most votes wins, even if it’s by one vote, and a result can be as close as 51% to 49%. But…
24 Apr, 2023
Compass research reveals why our politics needs a democratic reset
Anyone who is remotely interested in politics knows that the current First Past the Post (FPTP) system is heavily skewed towards the Tories – on average it requires 30% more…
03 Apr, 2023
Compass launches local elections campaign in the Mirror with exclusive new research
Compass launched its local elections campaign today with new research in the Mirror that revealed the shocking democratic deficit at the heart of Tory-run councils across the country. Of the…
07 Mar, 2023
International Women’s Day: How PR could address the gender imbalance in our politics
To mark International Women’s Day this year, we wanted to draw attention to a piece of the puzzle that upholds sexism in politics: the role our archaic voting system plays…
17 Feb, 2023
Democratising Democracy: Votes-weighted Representation
Only around 10% of humanity still live in so-called ‘full’, ‘liberal’ democracies. That fraction is shrinking. Yet again, leaderism and authoritarian regimes are spreading. Their rise is fuelled partly by…
14 Feb, 2023
Press release: Democracy campaigners respond to ‘unrepresentative’ council after voting reform row
Cross-party campaigners in North Yorkshire have rejected claims by Conservative councillors that they wasted council time by calling for a change to the voting system. A meeting of the Conservative…
02 Feb, 2023
Why Gordon Brown’s constitutional reforms need PR
Last year Gordon Brown launched his long-awaited report on the future of the UK constitution. One of the major criticisms of his proposals is that they do not include electoral…
20 Dec, 2022
The Ideology problem and how Proportional Representation can fix this
It is unlikely that you will find anyone who disagrees that the premiership of Liz Truss was a turbulent affair. As a lived experience, it was a mess bereft of…
26 Oct, 2022
Permanent Vote
The ‘right moment’ to write this piece seems to have been ever-present over the last year. However, with Labour recently backing PR, then the absolute temerity of The Conservative Party…