Gordon Brown’s voting reform pledge will satisfy no-one
Article posted by Unlock Democracy
Commenting on Gordon Brown’s announcement today that Labour’s election manifesto will pledge to hold a referendum on whether to change the system for electing the House of Commons to the Alternative Vote early in the next Parliament, Director of Unlock Democracy Peter Facey said:
“Gordon Brown has managed the unique achievement of coming up with a programme of electoral reform that will satisfy no-one.
“The Alternative Vote system, whilst offering the voter greater choice, is not proportional and a mere baby step in the face of the widening chasm between voter and politician. Parliament will remain as unrepresentative – and subsequently unresponsive – as ever. There is no demand amongst the wider public for this change and it is hard to see how a referendum on the subject will actually motivate people to come out and vote.
“Brown can still make a difference this side of a general election by legislating for a Citizens’ Convention to decide which the electoral system should be put to the public in a referendum, if at all. The choices should not be restricted by the very politicians who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.
“The Conservatives remain wedded to the broken first-past-the-post system. If Brown can show courage over the next few months and set out a clear dividing line between him and Cameron when it comes to trusting the people, he could expect to reap an electoral dividend. Now is not a time for yet more dithering and half-measures.”
On recall:
“We welcome Gordon Brown’s support for the right to recall MPs but will be seeking further clarification. In his speech he seems to suggest that recall should be restricted to cases where an MP has been shown to have done something wrong but Parliament has failed to act. Yet, as most of the MPs who were caught out during the expenses scandal were only too keen to point out, they were ‘only obeying the rules’. Even a serious offender such as Derek Conway would appear to be exempt from this as Parliament did act to censure him.
“While there may be a case for some safeguards, the basic principle behind recall is that the public should have the right to chuck out MPs they regard as deficient regardless of whether some Parliamentary committee determines them to have broken the rules or not. A recall system which does not give voters this power is not worthy of the name.”
On House of Lords reform:
“We welcome Labour’s commitment to remove hereditary peers from the House of Lords before the general election. This is long overdue. We urge Labour to go further and hold further indicative votes in the House of Commons before the general election and for all parties to spell out their positions so it is clear where all the parties stand on this crucial issue in advance of the election. We have been debating Lords reform for a century now; the less time we waste after the general election engaged in further pointless discussions, the better.”
ENDS
Notes
(1) Unlock Democracy is the UK’s leading campaign for democracy, rights and freedoms. It was formed in 2007 and is the successor organisation to Charter 88 and the New Politics Network.
(2) For more information, contact James Graham on 07966 237550.
September 29th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
AV is a pragmatic step forwards. It will result in a different kind of parliament – one that might eventually go for a truly proportionate system. Better a small progressive step that can be made – than campaigning for a purist big one that will not happen in one go… I think. But… we need the referendum on the day of the General Election not a year from then. (We have been there before – with the 97 manifesto) The time for action is NOW!
September 29th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
But – it is great (and thank you Gordon) that the days of First Past The Post are clearly numbered!
September 29th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
“and thank you Gordon”!
An ineffectual stunt that will do nothing to solve the problem does not deserve thanks.
Mebyon Kernows proposals that would go a long way to rectifying the situation can be found here: http://www.cornwall24.co.uk/uncategorized/mk-calls-radical-reform-political-system/
September 29th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
This is most likely Gordon Brown showing his hand to the Lib Dems.
He probably feels like he will only hold on to power as part of a coalition with them, but doesn’t want to give them full Proportional Representation.
So he offers a system that is an improvement on the current one but hardly ideal, qualified by the prospect of a referendum when the public may end up rejecting it and giving the Lib Dems nothing.
The Lib Dems have been playing hard to get so far, so I doubt they’ll take too warmly to this.
As for House of Lords reform, why wasn’t this done 100 years ago?
September 29th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
AV is not a pragmatic step forwards. It is a deeply cynical & desperate step backwards, to try to preserve the New Lab/Tory duopoly. It gives us electoral reformers absolutely nothing of what we want – it will reduce the representation of alternative points of view in parliament, and pile up crazy impregnable parliamentary majorities for the big 2 parties on a minority of first choice votes.
We would be insane to support it. Any reformer must realise that it is deliberately and cynically designed to ensure elections are a choice between Pepsi and Coke forever.
Brown has always been utterly untrustworthy on electoral reform, and he was only ever going to do the right thing when we were holding a gun to his head and he was forced to do so.
This abysmal announcement on AV at least removes any lingering doubt that Labour might ever voluntarily do the right thing.
A hung parliament was always our only chance of proper electoral reform, and now we know it.
Our only chance is to do what we can to work out how a hung parliament may happen, make the information available to voters, and hope & pray that the electoral arithmetic gives us one.
Then time to pull the trigger and bury Brown, as he deserves, and get ready to install a new Labour leader who will do the deal acceptable to us on proper electoral reform.
September 30th, 2009 at 1:11 am
Nope! Brown and co have told us one thing and done something else. They realise that “first past the post” voting is the most unfair voting system because it favours the incumbent. That means them.
So, any party that is in opposition to the existing UK parliamentary system will embrace the concept of Proportional Representation whilst in opposition or fringe. It is only when they are the invisible party that the come to realise that PR is not such a bad idea.