Category: Opinion
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If the Alba Party gets more than 5%, it could be catastrophic for unionist parties (but it probably won’t)
When it comes to political news, there is little more sensational than a prominent politician setting up a new party. Today, Alex Salmond, former First Minister of Scotland, announced he would be starting a new pro-Independence party – The Alba Party – to contest the Scottish Parliament election in May. Will it make any difference?…
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Which states should have the first four primaries? The case for picking the weirdest ones
This week, Democratic National Convention chair Tom Perez declared his support for changing the order of presidential primaries and caucuses so that Iowa and New Hampshire are toppled from their respective ‘first in the nation’ positions. Perez argues that more diverse states should be prioritised in selecting the Democrats’ future presidential candidates, presumably driven partly…
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Peterloo led eventually to electoral democracy – but there’s one big bit of unfinished business
New evidence shows that it’s the Right that tend to benefit from the UK’s unequal electoral system. The Left is gradually embracing Proportional Representation, but it needs to move faster. This was originally posted as an article for OpenDemocracy: Peterloo led eventually to electoral democracy – but there’s one big bit of unfinished business Today marks…
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Debate: will a PR model provide the desired political system?
My quote, originally published in Economia, the member publication for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales: Owen Winter Co-founder, Make Votes Matter “Millions feel unrepresented because first past the post (FPTP) distorts how people vote. In 2017 the DUP and Conservatives won a majority of seats with just 43% of the vote.…
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What if UK European Elections were held under the 1994 FPTP system?
The European Elections are the only nationwide UK elections held under a form of Proportional Representation. Admittedly, due to the D’Hondt counting system and small regions, the system isn’t perfectly proportional, but it is a vast improvement on the previous FPTP system, used until 1999. The last European Election to be held under First Past…
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Tactical voting on the basis of the 2014 European Elections
Disclaimer: I am a Labour Party member and will be voting for Labour in May’s European Elections. This blog is not intended to encourage tactical voting but to explore from an academic perspective whether various parties’ claims to be “the main Remain party” in the upcoming European Elections stand up to scrutiny. One of the biggest…
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Labour Should Put Post-16 Education at the Heart of its National Education Service
This article was originally published in Look Left – Oxford University Labour Club‘s termly journal. Education funding has been a hot political issue in recent years, with schools facing a funding crisis and controversial tuition fees being introduced in higher education. Until recently, however, further education has been largely missing from the conversation. Despite bearing…
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How Labour Can Seize The Initiative From The Independent Group
This was originally posted as a HuffPost article: How Labour Can Seize The Initiative From The Independent Group As of Thursday at 4pm, eleven MPs – eight Labour and three Conservative – had left their respective parties to join ‘The Independent Group’, sparking a political crisis for both main parties. I say sparking, but in…
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Labour4PR: Invite a speaker and call for electoral reform!
It’s a new year, and we are renewing our efforts for Labour to adopt Proportional Representation as party policy. You can see my case for doing so, in LabourList, here. So far, an unprecedented fifty-three (53) Constituency Labour Parties have passed motions calling on Labour to support PR for Westminster. Make Votes Matter has now added…
Owen Winter 