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May 24, 2005
press review
Conservative party is ‘burying its head in the sand’ (Independent 24 May), said Keith Best, chairman of the pressure group Conservative Action for Electoral Reform, after the party’s HQ devoted a third of its daily briefing to criticising the Campaign for Democracy. Conservative as ever, it continues to support ‘the traditional British voting system of First-Past-The-Post’.
Lord Falconer also burying his head in the sand? The Lord Chancellor, well known for his claim that there is ‘no groundswell’ for reform, is unfortunately ‘not available’ for the coming Lords
debate on voting reform, initiated by Make Votes Count chair David Lipsey. This is to be held on Thursday 26 May, when Labour and Liberal Democrat peers will challenge the Government’s refusal to introduce PR. The Government’s response will be made by Lord Falconer’s deputy, Baroness Ashton (Independent 24 May).
Advantages of PR (Independent 24 May) seen by various letter writers as including:
enabling different wings of parties to be represented, with policies being more clearly defined for
the electorate;
getting away from the position where a strong leader with a large majority can push through bad
laws without a proper debate.
Lord Puttnam, Chair of the Hansard Society Commission on the Communication of Parliamentary Democracy, sees electoral reform as delivering ‘the hope of reinvigorated politics and - not just increased - but genuinely engaged turnout’. The Commission’s report, published today, suggests ways to make Parliament’s proceedings more comprehensible to the public (Independent 24 May).
press review produced by Alastair Gordon
Posted by ninatemple on May 24, 2005
Comments
It is quite disgraceful that, after his highly contentious "no groundswell" comments, Falconer should not even deign to turn up for this debate.
Maybe it is about time that the Campaign for Democracy and Make My Vote Count started to show some teeth - maybe it's time to get personal about Lord Falconer, who he is, and why he is there.
He presents as a nice enough bloke we know, but ultimately he is where he is as the Lord Chancellor because he was Tony Blair's flatmate. Quite as simple as that, and has never had to run or be elected to anything. And this flatmate gets put in charge of our constitional affairs! You couldn't make it up - to call it a situation that would disgrace a banana republic would be unfair to banana republics, most of which at least have written constitutions for their dictators to abuse...
So how about a campaign focus on demanding that the Secretary of State for Constitutional Afairs be an elected representative, and demanding Falconer's departure from the government (unless he was prepared to run for election to the Commons).
Posted by: carlton at May 25, 2005 01:29 AM
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