5.5.5 & Counting is about calling for reform of the UK's general election system.

This is an absolute priority for two linked reasons:

• the current system is not reflecting the changing political will of the people of the country
• we cannot have a fairer society without a voting system for national elections that is fair to its voters – it's just not possible.

We want to add a loud voice to the call for electoral reform.

How do we get through to the people inside this building? Even on a July afternoon, scanning the long rows of windows we could see that in all but the odd one, the curtains were pulled firmly closed. Just protecting valuable artefacts from sunlight or deeply symbolic?

We want to give visitors to this site opportunities to contribute their opinions and knowledge. This will help us build and strengthen the case for electoral reform. If you happen to have legal expertise, you may even have opinions on whether there would be mileage in a legal challenge to the current electoral system.

We want to find ways of penetrating the media with the case for reform in a more systematic and consistent way than currently seems possible. We have a section which identifies the media industry itself serving as a barrier to change because of its long-standing vested interests in the present electoral system. See Media & FPTP.

We devote a section of the website to statistics, graphs and analyses that give direct evidence of the claims we make. In other words, you want proof that we're not making the statistics up and we provide it, along with the data you can access and download if you would like to help the cause by spreading more widely the truth about FPTP. Start by having a look at the results of the 2005 election.

We hope that with an active forum, the details of what work has to be done to achieve electoral reform will become clearer. To kick off our Actions section, we set out four essential considerations we believe to be central all action planning for electoral reform.

We aim to make regular new posts. Most will be directly on the issue of electoral reform but not all. A rich psychology underlies the UK's dedication to its outmoded electoral system - hardly found anywhere else -  and so to fully understand resistance to change, we need to explore and discuss many complicating and overlapping factors. You'll find the most recent posts on all issues on the Home Page.

Why do we need 5.5.5 & Counting? The Electoral Reform Society has been around since the 1880s but still hasn't achieved this one essential national reform we need. The pattern of voting changed very dramatically in 2001 and then stayed consistent through the three following elections (2005, 2010 and 2015). This indicates the agenda for reform needs up-to-date reasoning and arguments that we must develop and push hard. As well intentioned as they may be, people quoting isolated comments by Churchill from the 1930s are actually not helping very much.

How we suffered the effects of the 2008 crash during the term of the 2010 to 2015 Coalition government! This and the election of 2015 have shown us how unconvincing and inadequate the political class has been in protecting the interests of ordinary people. We need a system that can give more say to differently motivated politicians.

Finally, we do not see nearly enough constructive pressure coming from the elite economic and social class. Just a handful of voices among them ever express any doubts. Even after the massive financial crisis - which hardly seemed to touch them at all - most of them want to talk only about getting back on track. They assert that a return to business on all fronts will solve everyone's problems. It might well help increase the wealth gap between them and us. Does anyone else truly believe 'business as usual' intends to tackle inequality and unfairness? We on 5.5.5 & Counting certainly don't. You can read more about that date here  5 May 2005 .