Gordon Brown’s proposed electoral system could have cost Labour all their MEPs last Thursday
Article posted by Unlock Democracy
Commenting on rumours that Gordon Brown intends to announce plans to reform the electoral system tomorrow, Deputy Director of Unlock Democracy Alexandra Runswick said:
“If the rumours are true, Gordon Brown has clearly learned nothing from the last few weeks. This is a textbook example of how not to do electoral reform.
“The Alternative Vote system certainly has some superficial advantages over first-past-the-post and would ensure that no MP was elected with less than 50% of the vote. But it is not a proportional system and in certain circumstances can be less proportional than first past the post. Where there is a major swing against a political party, AV can actually exaggerate that swing. Under AV for example, Labour would probably have no MEPs at all after last Thursday’s election.
“Unlock Democracy believes the UK should adopt a proportional electoral system that gives voters a choice of both parties and individual candidates. But fundamentally, we believe the people – not politicians – should be leading this process. For this reason we are calling for a Citizens’ Convention to decide how to make Parliament and government more accountable and ethical.
“The Citizens’ Convention (Accountability and Ethics) Bill has been tabled in the House of Commons. If he is truly serious about reform, we call on Gordon Brown to announce tomorrow that he will allow time for the Bill to be debated.”
The Citizens’ Convention Bill received its first reading in the House of Commons on Monday (8 June). Supported by a cross party group of MPs (Martin Caton, David Drew, Jim Dowd, Norman Lamb, Julia Goldsworthy, Norman Baker, Douglas Carswell), the bill would establish a citizens’ convention of randomly chosen members of the public to look at ways to make the UK political system more accountable. Among other things, it will bring forward proposals to:
- Bring elected representatives to book when they step out of line;
- Change the way in which Parliament is run to ensure that the government is properly held to account;
- Decide on our electoral system.
To stand a chance of becoming law, the government will have to allow it time in Parliament to be properly debated and scrutinised.
June 10th, 2009 at 8:37 am
The Hansard Audit on Political Engagement found that the constitutional issue that the public were most disatisfied with was the issue of Scottish MPs voting on English matters.
Why then does Gordon Brown concentrate on electoral reform? Hmmm….Difficult one!
Proportional representation would be best introduced in a fully elected upper house.
Or, alternatively, there should be an English parliament elected by pr and the House of Lords should become a first past the post federal parliament. This has the added beneifit of solving the West Lothian Question and increasing democratic accountability.
It is best to have a mixture of two systems, pr and fptp.
June 10th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
This Citizens’ Convention is just a trendy fad that you fear you sound anti-reform if you criticise. here is why it is nonsense: it will consist of unwilling conscripted folks, drawn from a public who are massively hostile to politics, so these folks are very likely to be hostile to politics too. They will be doing a job grumpily they are totally disinterested in and don’t care about. They will find it easiest simply to recite tabloid attitudes, to every question they are asked. Thinking voices with a real interest and something original to say will be left excluded and alienated and unable to contribute to the outcome.
No exercise like this is representative of the thought in the country unless it opens itself to everyone interested to take part. Like the Scottish Civic Forum used to, before Labour shut it down by cutting its money. Sure you can also invite your demographic folks to come, but don’t be surprised if most say no. Then you will have that off your conscience: they showed they couldn’t be bothered to do it.