Miliband and Cameron will only get the message if we break democracy in front of their faces
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It is refreshing to see that a
newspaper which for many months now has been publishing and promoting
propaganda for the Conservative party, has at least one journalist
remaining in its employ, who is prepared to encourage an idea which
is completely alien to the philosophy and interests of the major
political parties in this country. Recent elections have shown us how
the voting system in this country, specifically in General Elections,
is not able to democratically reflect the preferences of the vast
majority of the population, in terms of which party or parties form a
government. For far too long, the Conservative Party or the Labour
Party, have dominated the face of British politics and have formed
governments, frequently with large majorities, which have borne
little if any, reflection of their actual support within the United
Kingdom. Indeed, it is not unknown for a party to achieve less than
35% of the votes cast nationally, and yet obtain an overall majority
of 66 seats and form a government for the next 5 years. This is not
democracy, nor is it fair.
There has been one referendum to test
public opinion on the question of Proportional Representation.
However, the result of this referendum was always a foregone
conclusion after Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat conspired
to produce a question which only gave the voters the option of
"Alternative Vote" or AV which as everyone knows, including
incidentally the Electoral Reform Society, is NOT proportional
representation and in most conditions produces a result which would
be even more distorted than the First Past the Post system currently
in use.
Only by corrupting the question on the
voting paper were the major parties able to maintain the status quo
and retain the comfort of knowing that whatever the result of a
General Election may produce, their time in office would come round
eventually. The mystery is why would the Liberal Democrats, who have
historically argued for electoral reform, support such a
preposterous scheme to pervert the choice of options to just AV?
The answer lies in the construction of
the ConDem coalition which gave the Liberal Democrats seats at the
cabinet table and all the privileges and perks associated with
office, in exchange for support of Tory polices and individual
ambitions.
This election of 2015 has now
inexorably shifted the debate onto new ground. The emergence of new
parties and the advances being made by parties until now considered
to be on the fringes of the political scene, have created a situation
where political choice has become a reality and people are, if the
opinion polls can be believed, prepared to make those choices.
Inevitably, this has resulted in an erosion of support for the
mainstream parties and the potential for minority government or a
rainbow of parties seeking to achieve an overall majority.
It would be a classic betrayal of
public trust and potentially a recipe for public dissent, if the
voting system of this nation were not changed to reflect the evolving
picture of multi party politics. It is interesting to note that over
the past few weeks, as the potential combinations of party alliances
became more and more complex, there is a perceptible and growing call
for a change in the voting system. There has in my view, always been
a real need for some form of Proportional Representation in this
country. It is a method which we use in practically every other
election and is the only system used in other countries.
The case for a Single Transferable
Vote, or STV system is compelling and whatever government emerges
from the poll on May 7th 2015, it is their duty to implement the
change over in time for the next election. The country deserves
nothing less and the people will judge harshly any political party
which prevaricates and blocks this long overdue reform.
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