Last month the government issued a new policy paper on its plans for reforming electoral law. Some of the proposals stemmed from a strategic review of electoral registration and conduct, which however was not released. But under FOI I have obtained a copy of it from MHCLG and have posted it here. It provides more details on the background and justification for some of the government’s intentions, and contains a substantial section on improving processes (such as postal ballots) for overseas...| Martin Rosenbaum
An edited version of a presentation I gave last month for staff at the Information Commissioner’s Office about my perspective on FOI and the ICO. Many thanks to the ICO for asking me to address them.| Martin Rosenbaum
What will be the political impact of the additional challenges that MRP polls may face at the next general election?| Martin Rosenbaum
I’ve been analysing recently published data from the Electoral Commission about local campaign spending by candidates at last year’s general election.| Martin Rosenbaum
On Tuesday June 3 in London I’m giving a talk on how to use freedom of information productively to a Meetup for the London Business Analytics Group. It’s a free and friendly event, open to everyone. So please do come along if you’d like to know more (and do tell others about it) – details here.| Martin Rosenbaum
I’ve found archive documents which show, contrary to recent reports, that Denmark icily rejected the UK’s demand to have right of first refusal if Greenland was ever to be sold| Martin Rosenbaum
After a freedom of information dispute lasting 18 months, I have finally obtained the official reasons Boris Johnson provided with his resignation honours list for giving peerages to Charlotte Owen and Ross Kempsell. The reasons cited for nominating Owen to membership of the House of Lords do come across as very thin, inadequate and lacking […]| Martin Rosenbaum
The general election result last July was certainly a ‘Labour landslide’, but it wasn’t the even bigger, ginormous landslide which the polls predominantly predicted.| Martin Rosenbaum
The public can now expect to find out the reasons Boris Johnson officially provided for nominating Charlotte Owen and Ross Kempsell to the House of Lords, due to a lengthy FOI battle I have pursued.| Martin Rosenbaum
As Rachel Reeves ponders her forthcoming budget and how to balance raising money against economic growth, one of her self-imposed constraints is her pledge not to raise the rate of VAT. However the impact of taxes also depends greatly on the thresholds from which they apply, even though this tends to get a lot less attention in public debate (as is certainly the case for income tax).| Martin Rosenbaum
Which predictive model for the results of the election was best – or the least bad?| Martin Rosenbaum