General election 2015
Interview: Tim Bale on comparisons between Ed Miliband and David Cameron as Leader of the Opposition
Ed Miliband could be about the become the UK’s Prime Minister – equally he could be about to be consigned to history as a footnote, known only an another unsuccessful Leader of the Opposition. Sean Kippin interviewed Professor Tim Bale, author of a book on Ed Miliband’s period as Labour leader, and asked about comparisons […]
Switching off E4 on election day is a bold move, but one that may well backfire
The 2015 General Election is upon is, and despite an uptick amongst registration amongst young people, turnout looks set to again be lop-sided in favour of older voters. In a valiant attempt to contribute in their own small way, the TV channel E4 have pledged to switch off the channel in order to encourage their […]
How to use the Democratic Dashboard
Democratic Audit UK recently launched the Democratic Dashboard, a new online tool which seeks to give voters completely impartial and accurate information about their local constituency which might be helpful to them in making up their own minds about how to vote at the 2015 general election. Here, Carl Cullinane and Patrick Dunleavy explain how to use […]
An invitation to adventurism: the Fixed-term Parliaments Act can and will crucify a minority government
A spirited argument has broken out on Democratic Audit UK and on other blogs regarding the implications of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act for what kind of Government may emerge from the General Election. In a previous blog, Colin Talbot argued that a minority government could govern relatively comfortably given the Act, which makes bringing […]
The UK election spells the end for the biggest ‘law’ in political science
Voters are again looking beyond the traditional two-party system and look set to put paid to a famous proposition of political science, ‘Duverger’s Law’, writes Democratic Audit UK Director Patrick Dunleavy. Similar PostsEuropean elections 2019: what will happen in England’s South East?European elections 2019: what will happen in Scotland?European elections 2019: what will happen in the […]
A new method for addressing parliamentary boundaries shows the extent of Britain’s “safe seat” problem
With the the 2015 election upon us, there is much talk of safe and marginal seats, and the main parties approach to each. In this post, Max Goplerud examines a perennial concern about the British electoral system—the prevalence of safe seats—using historical data and a new method for addressing boundary changes to illustrate the extent of […]
Party manifestos fail to offer clear commitments on the redrawing of Parliamentary boundaries
Will the rules for the redistribution of Parliamentary constituencies be changed by the next government – as recommended by a House of Commons Committee? Or will another disruptive exercise reducing the number of MPs begin within a year of the 2015 election, as currently scheduled? As Ron Johnston, David Rossiter and Charles Pattie show, there […]
Five Minutes with Carl Cullinane on the Democratic Dashboard: “There’s a big difference between open data and accessible data.”
Sierra Williams caught up with Carl Cullinane, the project lead behind the Democratic Dashboard, a voter information resource making constituency data open and accessible in the run-up to the UK’s General Election. Because of the variety of data sources used, it was a huge job to harmonise the structure and formatting of the datasets to make them compatible. […]
UK immigration detention: What sort of reform, and when?
Immigration detainees in the UK face the largest detention estate in Europe, with physical infrastructure and regimes of surveillance and control adapted from penal institutions. Because the UK has no time limit on stays in detention, the psychological harm to detainees can be serious. An upper threshold would go some way to correct this deficiency and its harms. Consideration must also be given to replacing detention altogether with non-custodial, community-based programs of assisting, monitoring, and humanely shepherding […]
The SNP’s exponential rise is throwing the British system of government into turmoil
The General Election of 2015 looks set to be an exceptionally good one for the SNP, who look set to not only supplant Labour as the largest party north of the border, but to rout it. Sean Swan argues that this could see considerable change in the way British politics is conducted in future, particularly […]
Democratic Audit's core funding is provided by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Additional funding is provided by the London School of Economics.