leyton.org

Readers of my various posts over the course of the recent general election will have realised that I’m a proponent of electoral reform in this country. Therefore, I’m very pleased to see the campaign launched by The Independent has attracted some serious attention See the makemyvoutecount.org.uk website too

The most senior politician of all, Tony Blair, has been asked for his opinion on the growing calls for a review and reform. Unfortunately, his enthusiasm has been somewhat muted since the heady days of the 1997 election campaign manifesto which read:

“We are committed to a referendum on the voting system for the House of Commons. An independent commission on voting systems will be appointed early to recommend a proportional alternative to first-past-the-post”

The 1998 Jenkins commission report (set up by Blair) in 1998 backed a Proportional system. So it’s ironic that Blair should now be saying that “…there are no plans to change the present system.“

But what has changed Tony Blair’s mind on the matter? It’s not unheard of for a politician to do that after all. In fact, on the face of it, it’s positively refreshing for a politician to change their mind. But Blair doesn’t do that in quite the way you’d expect.

Blair seems convinced that reform is necessary in some parts of our system, but not others. His eye has been set very much on reforming the House of Lords for some time, but regrettably the result has been a hodge-podge of reform which has left our current system somewhat out of kilter. We still have a system based on grace and favour, a resting place for “Tonies Cronies” - never more clear than the news today that he has appointed former cabinet ministers such as Estelle Morris to the Lords, today making Labour the largest single party in that chamber.

My fear is simple: That Blair is fiddling about the edges, making half-hearted and ill thought through changes to a system that has worked well. However, there are two very important changes to the way in which democracy works in this country that merit a wider review of our ENTIRE system. The way people vote, and the move towards an all powerful executive.

We’ve already seen how Blair moved towards a ‘presidential’ style of governance, and his continual disdain for accountability to the electorate, such as appearing less frequently in Parliament than any other Prime Minister before him and the almost complete absence by his ministers to increased scrutiny is shocking. Our parliament - already unrepresentative - is increasingly being ignored and treated with disdain by the executive. This was demonstrated so well by the publication by the government of a proposal that changed the debate on detention of terrorists whilst the commons was in session on that very issue.

Leaving aside the process by which votes are counted, the way people vote has changed substantially in recent years. No longer do people particularly care about the individual candidate, rather they vote based on party political allegiance, only rarely taking into account specific local electoral issues (as demonstrated by the Martin Bell case, and perhaps George Galloway). The reason for this is the broadcast media. By it’s very definition, Broadcast media addresses a wide audience and cannot deal with specific local issues. National newspapers, national broadcasters and - consequently - a focus on the national issues.

Thus a homogenized view of politics is formed. It’s no longer “my local candidate says that”, it’s “this party says that”. Because of this, people choose parties not candidates. As the phrase goes, in some parts of the world (particularly here in inner-city Glasgow) - put a donkey up as a Labour party candidate and it’ll be elected.

So, surely our electoral system should reflect the views of the people? When you mark a ballot paper indicating your wish for electoral success of a particular party, surely the system should recognise it? Not in this country. Only 36% of those who voted wanted Labour. As a percentage of those entitled to vote, that’s barely 21%. Only about a fifth of the entitled population wanted this government, by far the majority either didn’t care or didn’t want them.

So this system in use right now manifestly does not REPRESENT people, and surely a democracy is supposed to do that. No matter how poorly we think of them. Give the BNP a seat, and expose their preposterous opinions to the full gaze of scrutiny and demonstrate how inept they are. Perhaps that’s an extreme point of view, but what of the Green Party? They command a lot of support, perhaps not as a party of government, but as a party of pressure. Their views should therefore be represented in our national debating chamber.

What shocks me most is that those in power fail to see that the issue of declining voter involvement is precisely because of the two issues I mention earlier: Executive supremacy and un-representative governance, which can be summarised (with a suitable shrug of the shoulders) as “They don’t care” and “My vote makes no difference anyway”.

For every forced through piece of legislation, for every poorly considered bill that makes it on to the statue books, for every member of parliament who sits in a seat where more people voted for other parties than for themselves, there is a consequence in increased disdain. More shrugs of the shoulder, and a decreasing participation in democracy and politics.

So the voters are right to feel that - right now - the system doesn’t care about them, and in increasing numbers they will, er, not make their opinions known. The only way to turn this about in a way that will make a difference is to ensure that the electorate IS represented, no matter what their beliefs. That every vote counts, in some constructive way, to building a representative system.

This is achieved, surely, firstly by a representative voting system, and secondly by a powerful and effective second chamber that can properly scrutinise those who claim to have the support of the population.

See also

• makemyvotecount.org.uk
• theyworkforyou.com
• The Independent’s campaign for democracy

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 18th, 2005 at 12:55 pm and is filed under British General Election, Campaigns, Politics, Voting reform. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.