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May 19, 2005
Peter Riddell
I think I'm in the majority in liking the Times's Peter Riddell. His writing is always calm, sane and sensible, and he's always been interested in the deeper historical and constitutional issues that underlie political events. He's taken very seriously, and his column today addresses electoral reform. It's time, he says, to 'start flirting with PR' and that the essential question is political - that FPTP is becoming less and less likely to deliver stable government, and that both main parties have to start thinking about coalitions and reform.
You can download the report of the Independent Commission on PR, published last year courtesy of Peter Riddell, David Butler and colleagues, from this link. It clears away a number of myths from the debate, including the idea that PR is not compatible with stable government. The task for the government review should be merely to update the analysis of the ICPR, and come to a political conclusion (the cross-party independent nature of the ICPR precluded it from arguing a point of view).
If you follow the link and read the Riddell article, you will see that the Times is inviting emails from readers on the electoral reform debate - please contribute.
Posted by lewisbaston on May 19, 2005
Comments
The 'campaign for democracy' is all very well but it doesn't address the west lothian Question.
My vote still won't count if Scottish MPs are overturning English democracy.
Why don't sites like this and the Independent address these issues?
Posted by: Gareth at May 22, 2005 08:36 PM
We're democrats and believe in free speech, but we're also committed to civil and rational debate. We reserve the right to delete material posted to our site, but we hope and expect to exercise this right rarely if at all.
