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April 26, 2005
The issue awakes
Just over a week to polling, and voting reform is becoming the "sleeper" issue of this campaign. The politicians don't want to talk about it, of course. Tony Blair is scared it will divide his own party between Prescott old Labour and the more modern tendencies. Michael Howard knows that any constitutional change is neuralgic for the Tories, even though it is they who suffer most from the bias of the current system. And most strangely Charles Kennedy seems to have adopted a policy of silence, on the grounds that whinging puts voters off the Lib Dems; since they whinge against every other injustice on the planet, the logic is hard to follow.
However since early in the campaign the Times identified the focus of all the parties on marginals, the sleeper begins to wake. Mr Blair has now blurted out that the election result depends on a few hundred (or thousand) voters. The iniquity of this situation is precisely our point.
Electoral reform is now a solid theme of the commentariat: Polly Toynbee our staunchest supporter, bless her; then Nick Cohen in the Observer, Martin Samuel in today's Times - each day there is another voice pointing out the failings of the present system.
And so are voters, when they get a chance to air their views in press and radio; furious, for example, that they cannot give Mr Blair a bloody nose over the war without giving Mr Howard a boost in his race for Downing Street. This weekend will see local demonstrations for voting reform organised by Make Votes Count all over the country. Make your voice count at them.
Posted by davidlipsey on April 26, 2005
Comments
Unfortunately all we seem to get is just a mention of the fact that the outcome of the election will be decided in the marginal seats. This to the vast majority of people is not a condemnation of first-past-the-post it is merely a comment on a fact about the way in which the one and only electoral system works. What we need is explanation.
I read Nick Cohen's spendid article but even that did not expand on the absurdity of a system which gives us a government with an enormous majority for which a mere 25% of the total electorate voted; for which around 60% of actual voters did not vote; and under which around 70% of votes just don't count.
I'm surprised at the praise for Polly Toynbee! She wrote some very fine articles about 18 months ago but since then I haven't seen anything explicitly supporting PR.She seems indeed to have been won over to the acceptance of AV as an acceptable system for Westminster. However, as we all know this is as much a majoritarian system as is FPTP and can even give far worse representation of opinion in general elections than FPTP (although as we know it is the desirable system for electing individuals like mayors and presidents - and in bye-
elections - and would of course be approriate in a mixed system as in Scotland).
In my opinion what we need is to have the BBC observe its remit which includes educating and informing which it most certainly does not observe regarding the way we elect our "representatives". This morning on Today was a good example when it would not have been unreasonable for John Humphrys to have pointed out to the Education Secretary (who was reiterating the "warning" about voting LibDem) that if the Labour party had not reneged on their 1997 commitments regarding PR they probably would not have to worry about people switching their votes to the LibDems - they might land up leading a coalition but that would be infinitely preferable to another spell on the oposition benches.
Posted by: Joe Patterson at April 26, 2005 05:40 PM
Each of the main parties has its reasons for not wanting to mention voting reform. But I think it is beginning to bubble away as an issue, particularly people who don't want to vote Labour after Iraq but don't want to let the Tories in seem to be very angry that they don't have a more representative voting system. This came over very strongly in the radio five live phone-in. Neil Kinnock voiced his support for voting reform on Tuesday's Today programme - and as for Polly Toynbee lookout for her column this Friday when I hope she will return to the issue.
Posted by: Nina Temple at April 27, 2005 09:43 AM
The 'ordinary voter' appears to be so fed up with politics in general that they fail to believe campaigns like this can work. Whilst handing out flyers in Glasgow city centre and at Glasgow University, it was clear that anyone who thinks change is possible is treated with the same contempt as the politicians themselves. This is worrying as it has been a long time since anyone challenged Labour in Glasgow so why would they change the system? Whilst this campaign has taken great strides in London in the past few years, Glasgow is so out of touch with British politics it is like a different country here... sorry Mr Salmond? it is a different country??!!
Posted by: Martyn McDonald at April 27, 2005 10:40 AM
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