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April 21, 2005

Email from Mark Thomas

Political activist and comedian par excellence, Mark Thomas, has been in touch via the ubiquitous Justin Kirby of DMC.

It's a lovely little read, and I'm sure Mark won't mind me using it in full.

The present system is outdated. It doesn't allow a true representation of people, ideas, desires and aspirations in Parliament. It is untransparent, arcane and favours those with power and money. With mainstream parties converging into the same ground on so many of the issues there is little chance for major change. Parliament has become the battle of managers rather than a powerhouse for popular change. In short it is barely a democracy. One way this could start to be addressed is through PR which would allow a much fairer reflection of peoples views, which is starting to happen in the Scottish Parliament which has seen an increase in independent, Scottish Socialist Party and Green MSP's. Similar is the London Assembly which saw Ken Livingstone get in as an Independent and a fair showing from the Greens.

Democracy is surely about representing our views and introducing the changes we want in the world. Yet so many people vote tactically to keep one candidate out or take the lesser of two evils approach to voting; PR seems to be a start in redressing that imbalance.

Posted by pauldavies on April 21, 2005