{"id":6957,"date":"2022-11-26T00:39:44","date_gmt":"2022-11-26T00:39:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.electoral-reform.org.uk\/?p=6957"},"modified":"2022-11-24T17:40:00","modified_gmt":"2022-11-24T17:40:00","slug":"2022-at-the-ers-getting-our-issues-in-the-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/2022-at-the-ers-getting-our-issues-in-the-press\/","title":{"rendered":"2022 at the ERS: Getting our issues in the Press"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Each year we write an Annual Report which looks back at our achievements across the last 12 months, and explains how our team have campaigned towards securing our vision for a democracy fit for the 21st Century.<\/p>\n

By using our voice in the media, developing in-depth research and policy, campaigning and influencing and making the case online we\u2019ve led the charge for reform in 2022.<\/p>\n

Read the full Annual Report for 2022: Our Year Campaigning for Change<\/a> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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ERS in the Press 2022<\/h3>\n

In many ways 2022 has been a year of unprecedented volatility in modern British politics. However, throughout the year we have worked to ensure electoral reform and democratic issues were leading headlines. Our communications and press team provided in-depth analysis, opinion pieces and interviews to journalists, pushing vital democratic issues higher up the news agenda to increase public support.<\/span><\/p>\n

The year started with the Government passing the Elections Act mandating that voters will have to show ID when they vote. The ERS provided comment (in print and video) warning of the damaging impact this would have on democracy that was covered in the <\/span>Mirror<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Independent<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Politics UK<\/span><\/a> and<\/span> National<\/span><\/a> in Scotland. In January, the ERS was also covered making the case for reforming the House of Lords in the <\/span>Express<\/span><\/a>, when Conservative MPs flirted with the idea of abolition after peers blocked the Government\u2019s protest bill.<\/span><\/p>\n

In March, the ERS was covered in the <\/span>Times<\/span><\/a> highlighting the still \u201cshocking lack of representation\u201d of women in parliament for International Women\u2019s Day. And in April a report co-produced with IPPR, was covered prominently the <\/span>Observer<\/span><\/a> warning of the dramatic loss of faith young people have in democracy to make their life better.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the lead-up to and during the local elections in April and May there was coverage of ERS research highlighting the absurdly disproportionate result FPTP produces in <\/span>MyLondon<\/span><\/a>, the <\/span>Camden New Journal<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Islington Tribune<\/span><\/a>. In Wales, there was also widespread coverage, including on <\/span>Wales Online<\/span><\/a>, of ERS research showing fewer than a third of council candidates were women.<\/span><\/p>\n

In April our report with Prof. Sir John Curtice on how Scottish voters were using STV to express their preferences was covered widely, including by <\/span>ITV<\/span><\/a>, the <\/span>Daily Mail<\/span><\/a>, the <\/span>Independent<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Politics.co.uk<\/span><\/a>, the<\/span> Scottish Express<\/span><\/a> and the <\/span>Nation<\/span><\/a> in Wales.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following the Tiverton and Honiton and Wakefield by-elections, when there was national media debate about the implications of co-operation between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, ERS research on what PR would have meant for previous General Elections was reported on in the<\/span> Spectator<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Times<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>The Scotsman<\/span><\/a> also ran an oped from our Director of Campaigns, Willie Sullivan, on how PR could end the scourge of tactical voting.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ERS has also led on issues such as continued expansion of the Lords and the latest honours lists, with comments on the need to reform the upper chamber in the <\/span>Financial Times<\/span><\/a> as well as coverage in<\/span> the Guardian<\/span><\/a> of research showing more than half of the public were opposed to Boris Johnson\u2019s controversial list of new peerages.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our chief executive, Darren Hughes was also interviewed by the <\/span>Washington Post<\/span><\/a> for an article explaining to American readers what the House of Lords is and the urgent case for reforming it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the summer, the ERS highlighted the growing need for democratic renewal with coverage in the <\/span>Independent<\/span><\/a> on how the issue needs to be a priority for Keir Starmer in August, as well as calls on the Conservative leadership candidates to restore trust in politics, covered in the <\/span>Mirror<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the Summer, the ERS was also focused on supporting colleagues in the trade union movement and Labour to successfully pass pro-PR motions in the union Unison in June and then at the Labour Party in September. We worked with partner organisations such as Politics for the Many and Labour for a New Democracy (L4ND) to coordinate a series of op-eds ahead of the respective conferences to powerfully make the case for electoral reform, such as in <\/span>Labour List<\/span><\/a> and in the <\/span>Observer<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

More recently, the ERS has researched and commented on the prospect of Liz Truss issuing a resignation honours list after just six weeks in office. Our comments that peerages cannot be \u201crewards for failure\u201d were covered by the <\/span>Mirror<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Sunday Times<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Daily Mail<\/span><\/a>, i News<\/span><\/a>, as well a wide range of regional titles. The ERS has also been at the forefront of keeping the debate going on the incoming voter ID requirement as part of the Elections Act. In October our comments on the need for mirrors and screens to be bought into polling stations were carried in the <\/span>Mirror<\/span><\/a> and<\/span> i paper<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Wales, ERS Cymru has also featured prominently in coverage of democratic issues, such as the Welsh Government\u2019s plans to expand the Senedd, replace AMS with a more proportional voting list system and introduce statutory gender quotas, which was <\/span>announced earlier this year<\/span><\/a>. ERS Cymru\u2019s director Jess Blair has featured on<\/span> Wales Online<\/span><\/a> as well as the BBC\u2019s Walescast podcast and ITV\u2019s Sharp End debate programme discussing the proposals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elsewhere, ERS Cymru has led on wider democratic reforms in the country, including pilots to increase voter turnout covered by the <\/span>BBC<\/span><\/a> and improving the <\/span>teaching of democratic issues in schools<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Scotland the ERS has been raising the salience of democratic issues. This has included being quoted on the need to clean up \u2018dark\u2019 political money in Scottish politics, covered in the <\/span>Times<\/span><\/a>, and also on how to improve Scottish local democracy, which has been covered in the <\/span>Herald<\/span><\/a> and the<\/span> Times<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Number of media hits Nov 2021 \u2013 October 2022<\/h4>\n

Almost 2,000 news and comment pieces mentioned the ERS\u2019s work in 2022, this was driven by our work furthering the cause of electoral reform in the UK as well as campaigning for a more democratic House of Lords.<\/p>\n

This compares to roughly 1,000 mentions in the previous year. The main drivers of hits was coverage of ERS work at three main points in the year. The highest was news Liz Truss was planning a \u2018rewards for failure\u2019 resignation honours list after fewer than 50 days in power (which generated more than 400 mentions), followed by news Boris Johnson was due to inflate the size of the Lords further with his own resignation list (generating more than 200 mentions) and the news Labour had passed a pro-PR motion at its conference (generating just under 200 mentions).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Support the ERS<\/h3>\n

As momentum builds for electoral reform, your support is more important than ever. Members support our work in parliament, in the press and at conferences like this one \u2013 making the case, and backing it up \u2013 for how we can fix Westminster\u2019s broken system.<\/p>\n

Join the ERS today<\/a> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each year we write an Annual Report which looks back at our achievements across the last 12 months, and explains how our team have campaigned towards securing our vision for a democracy fit for the 21st Century. By using our voice in the media, developing in-depth research and policy, campaigning and influencing and making the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-electoral-reform","feature-category-ers-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}