« Talking with Tatchell electoral reform special | Main | Michael Wills on the electoral review »
September 17, 2007
Urgent - send in a question to Radio 4's 'You and Yours'
BBC Radio 4 is doing a special on Constitutional Reform this Tuesday at 12.04pm, with the Minister responsible, Michael Wills MP, responding to listeners' questions. As you can see from the info below, electoral reform doesn't even seem to warrant a mention. We should be asking why that is, and where that soon-to-be published review of electoral systems fits in to Brown's thinking/plans; and why voters are being denied a chance to feed into or influence this debate.
Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/coming_up.shtml and add your electoral reform related question.
Blurb from the BBC site:
Do we need a written Constitution and a British Bill of Rights?
In July, Gordon Brown promised to consult the public on a wide range of constitutional changes, from establishing a new Bill of Rights to a possible switch to weekend voting. On Tuesday’s Call You & Yours, you can put your comments directly to Michael Wills, the Minister in charge of overseeing these constitutional changes.
Tell us what you think
Should voting age be reduced to 16? Should elections take place on the weekend? What should be included in a British Statement of Values? And do we need a new Bill of Rights
Posted by malcolmclark on September 17, 2007
Comments
As I have said before, I think it is wrong to concentrate on the so-called review which in my view is no more than a temporising device and if it eventually recommends any change at all (after nearly eight years!) it will be AV which is no more proportional than FPTP but might well benefit Labour.
We should be constatnly drawing attention to the 1997 manifesto commitment to a referendum on changing the electoral system. Here is a copy of my e-mail to You and Yours. Doubtless if the Minister even sees this he will follow the usual pattern and ignore it.
"Many consitutional changes are necessary but the priority should be an electoral system that gives us a Parliament and Government that actually represents what the electorate has voted for (at present we have a government for which nearly 80% of the electorate did NOT vote!)
In the 1997 manifesto was a COMMITMENT to a referendum on the electoral system. This was cynically reneged on by Blair's government.
Now that Gordon Brown has taken over can we hope for some more honest dealing by Labour and that this unequivocal commitment will at last be honoured?
Here to remind you is the exact wording of the 1997 manifesto commitment:
'We are COMMITTED to a referendum on the voting system for the House of Commons. An independent commission on voting systems will be appointed early to recommend a proportional alternative to the first-past-the-post system'"
Posted by: Joe Patterson at September 18, 2007 10:06 AM
why should Uk Parliament be the only organisation where there are more tha 2 parties be the only one not to use a proportional system. All PR systems have problems but if the PR works for Scotland, Wales and the EU ( even for NZ ! )why is it not used for the UK Parliament?
Posted by: alan Joel at September 27, 2007 04:51 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.
