{"id":8347,"date":"2024-12-09T12:40:07","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T12:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.electoral-reform.org.uk\/?p=8347"},"modified":"2024-12-10T12:33:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T12:33:00","slug":"2024-at-the-ers-getting-our-issues-in-the-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/2024-at-the-ers-getting-our-issues-in-the-press\/","title":{"rendered":"2024 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.<\/i><\/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 2024.<\/i><\/p>\n

Read the full Annual Report for 2024: Our Year Campaigning for Change<\/a> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"MikeMike Wright, Head of Communications<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u201cIt was clear this was going to be a busy year for the ERS media-wise, with a likely general election and change of government, as well as local elections, making our issues prominent at various points in the year. The first quarter was largely dedicated to preparing for those set pieces to ensure we were able to maximise the coverage and then land effective messaging that resonated with the public. As such, a predominant focus was the messaging project we carried out with research colleagues to ensure we had tested arguments and lines on electoral reform ready for the election. The other key strategic focus for the comms team was building deeper relations with journalists, particularly in broadcast, to ensure we could pre-brief influential figures on our issues<\/em> before the elections, and this led to better informed coverage when our issues did arise.\u201d<\/p>\n

The start of the year was dominated with Liz Truss\u2019s resignation honours list, which put a sharp focus on the House of Lords, peerages and cronyism. The ERS was quoted in the BBC News story on the list<\/a>, and Jess Garland was also interviewed on a number of outlets, including Channel 4 News<\/a>, ITV<\/a>, and Sky<\/a>. This allowed us to frame the issue of Lords reform as pressing for the then current and next government.<\/p>\n

The rest of the first quarter of the year was then dominated by the build-up to the local and mayoral elections, which were seen as a key test for the beleaguered Sunak government and to see if Labour was making serious electoral inroads. There was also a growing focus on our issues and we were quoted in stories on tactical voting in Politico<\/a>, voter ID in the Express<\/a>, and Police and Crime Commissioner elections on ITV<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In May, the local elections saw the media take an interest primarily in voter ID as it was the first time millions of voters would be encountering it. ERS spokespeople did numerous broadcast interviews, largely on BBC Local News radio<\/a>, on how the issue could affect people, with Darren\u2019s comments being picked up by the Express<\/a> and other news outlets. After the local elections, our analysis showing that mayors had been elected with smaller mandates than previous incumbents due to the switch to FPTP was also picked up by the media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the period following the general election, the media focus shifted to the new government\u2019s agenda, with the majority of the media interest being in the reforms to the House of Lords. The ERS has featured in coverage of this issue in a number of publications, from the New Statesman<\/a>, i News<\/a> to the Daily Mail<\/a>. Darren appeared on BBC News discussing the Lords reform proposals<\/a> in the Kings Speech.<\/p>\n

The ERS had over 800 hits in different media outlets over 2024 to date. This is similar to 2023, when there was a high media interest in the roll-out of voter ID for the first time. However, the focus this year, when the spotlight was likely to fall on our issues, was to aim for higher cut-through media outlets, with appearances on the Today Programme and BBC Breakfast as particular highlights.<\/p>\n

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

Click here to become an ERS member from just \u00a32 a month<\/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":8361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[523,743],"class_list":["post-8347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-electoral-reform","tag-annual-report","tag-annual-report-2024","feature-category-ers-report-launch"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8347","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=8347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}