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January 31, 2008

Lord Hunt skewered on his own petard

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, responding on behalf of the Government yesterday to a question in the Lords about the review of electoral systems, said:

"My Lords, it is certainly a report for anoraks. It is objective and does not make value judgments; it merely goes through the experiences of the devolved countries and the London and European elections. It is helpful in terms of the wider debate on systems of election more generally, and I hope noble Lords will read it."

Durr! The only reason why this is a report for anoraks is because the Government has made it so - taking a very academic approach to the subject and not bothering to go out and involve the public. No wonder it is such a dry "A-level essay or undergaduate dissertation" as Simon Hughes has pointed out. So if the responses they are getting can be classified as nerdy or anoraky, the Government has only itself to blame. If they were serious about wanting a debate and to make good value of the £30,000 it has cost them to publish the review, they would actually go off and start initiating some meaningful public dialogue and debate on the issue of elections from the voters' perspective. Then again, that is precisely what they want to avoid. So this 'anoraky'ness suits their purpose well. Just rather hypocritical of the Lord Hunt and his colleagues to claim otherwise.

Posted by malcolmclark on January 31, 2008

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