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May 02, 2005

Press Update from, erm, Saturday

With my mind elsewhere (St. Mary's) I missed a very important letter in the Times from intern Ben, he of the (alleged) pantomime horse fetish. If you follow the link, there's another good letter from someone else, but for now, quoth Ben:

Sir, Whilst Mr Jeremy Davies’s sentiment — that people should vote according to their convictions and not tactically — is admirable (letter, April 25), he is unfortunately mistaken when he claims that “votes are never wasted”.

More than 100,000 votes for Labour in Surrey at the last election failed to produce any MPs, and a similar number of Tory votes had nil effect in Liverpool. Under our first-past-the-post system, the outcomes in many constituencies are foregone conclusions, a great many votes are wasted, and perhaps less than 2 per cent of the population will actually have a decisive input.

This is not a healthy democracy; it is a climate that encourages tactical voting if people want any influence. Until there are significant advances in electoral reform (as promised by Labour in its 1997 manifesto), votes will continue to be wasted, people will remain inadequately represented, and government will remain unaccountable.

Posted by pauldavies on May 02, 2005