Share this page!

Electoral Reform Society Profile picture
Twitter logo
Jan 31 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Following the retirement of Viscount Ridley there is going to be a Conservative hereditary peer by-election. The 45 Conservative hereditary peers in the Lords will be voting to select who will get a seat in the Lords for life as his replacement. parliament.uk/globalassets/d…
Candidates, drawn from a list of Conservative hereditary peers outside the Lords, submit short, often bizarre, statements such as the below to garner support. Image
This time though, one candidate has gone a bit further than usual, submitting a peculiar YouTube search link as his statement... youtube.com/results?search… Image
The first video is a country song, with a strange Obama in a dress / Christmas themed video. It's unclear how this is related to joining the House of Lords for life.
If you think it shouldn't just be hereditary peers who get to stand and vote for who joins the House of Lords, but all of us in regular elections - sign our petition here ers.tools/house-of-lords

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Electoral Reform Society

Electoral Reform Society Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @electoralreform

Electoral Reform Society Profile picture
Feb 23
The #ElectionsBill is having its second reading in the House of Lords today - there is a lot wrong with this bill, from spending millions to make it harder to vote, to reducing the independence of our Electoral Commission.
Around 2.1 million people lack the necessary identification for their voter ID scheme, according to the government’s own research. Checking millions of documents and supplying ID will cost up to £180 million a decade electoral-reform.org.uk/expensive-vote…
Poll workers will have the power to turn voters away if they think an old photo doesn't look enough like them. Unlike border police, poll workers are not specially trained to do this sort of work. Growing a beard or getting a bold haircut shouldn't disenfranchise you.
Read 7 tweets
Electoral Reform Society Profile picture
Jan 17
This afternoon the Commons is debating the Government's controversial #ElectionsBill. This bill will reduce the independence of the Electoral Commission, ban those without the right ID from voting and change the electoral system for Mayors and PCCs electoral-reform.org.uk/the-government…
Banning those without the right sorts of ID from voting could cost up to £180,000,000 a decade, with millions alone being spent on bigger poll cards to explain the complicated rules. Around 2.1 million people lack the necessary ID according to the government’s own research.
Disadvantaged groups, like the unemployed, those renting from a local authority and disabled people are less likely to have ID. The bill expects them to travel to, sometimes distant, local council offices to request alternative forms of ID.
electoral-reform.org.uk/expensive-vote…
Read 29 tweets
Electoral Reform Society Profile picture
Jun 8, 2021
You can explore the proposed boundary changes here
bcereviews.org.uk
We support the principle of equalising boundary sizes, but there should have been more flexibility to help seats reflect actual communities. Allowing up to 10% difference in size between seats would have helped to minimise disruption for voters and MPs.
Reviews should also be based on a more accurate data source than the electoral register, which the Electoral Commission estimated was missing 9.4 million voters. These voters tend to be urban, younger, from lower-income groups, renters, and ethnic minorities.
Read 4 tweets
Electoral Reform Society Profile picture
Jun 7, 2021
Boundary reviews cause so much consternation with MPs as they know, with first past the post, that it is where they fall that will decide whether they win or lose their seat. thetimes.co.uk/article/4d76ba…
We made this graphic a few years ago - but look how control of our fictional town council changes between the reds and the blues as the boundaries move, even though nobody changes their vote.
Thankfully our Independent Boundary Commissions mean the boundaries aren't drawn for partisan advantage, but if we don't want lines on a map to decide our government, we need to abandon the idea that each constituency should elect one MP.
Read 4 tweets
Electoral Reform Society Profile picture
Dec 12, 2020
One year on: 9 things you need to know about the 2019 General Election electoral-reform.org.uk/9-things-you-n…
1. The Conservatives won a big majority… despite only increasing their vote share by 1.3% on 2017
2. Smaller parties got crushed – as usual. Nearly 900,000 votes for the Green Party across the UK equated to exactly one Green MP.

In contrast, it took just 25,000 or so votes to elect an SNP MP (thankfully, both parties back proportional representation!)
Read 10 tweets
Electoral Reform Society Profile picture
Sep 24, 2020
Democracy in the Dark – our new report from two of the UK’s leading election finance academics Dr @KateDommett
and Dr @sampower reveals a major rise in online spending during the 2019 general election – with little transparency over how it was used.
electoral-reform.org.uk/ers-reveals-th…
The £19.5 million the Conservatives raised in the six weeks leading up to the election is greater than the sum total of reported donations to all political parties in 2017 during the same period (Chart: Weekly pre-poll donations over £7,500)
2019 saw big donors that were far more willing to part with their cash than in 2017 – the total reported donations in the run up to the vote topped £30.4 million (All parties, donations over £7,500).
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @electoralreform has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @electoralreform!

Read all threads by @electoralreform

:(