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January 24, 2008
Opinions of the Review 2: Labour should support STV
Alex Hilton wrote on his Labourhome blog that it is time for Labour to take the lead on electoral reform. Hilton will not accept a form of PR "hashed out in a back room over three days negotiation, after a tense election" as a reform that will benefit Britain. Rather, he argues that Labour must take the lead on this issue instead of "horse-trading with the LibDems in secret," if only to show the public that electoral reform is being made for the right reasons. To best do this, Hilton calls for a system of STV which would have the following benefits:
1. More voters' votes would contribute to elected politicians' majorities - and therefore, those politicians would be more accountable to their voters.2.The constituency link would be protected.
3.Backbench MPs would motivated to raise their performance.
4.Representation of women could increase while abolishing all-women shortlists.
Here is Hilton's reasoning for how STV would bring these changes about.
The system I propose would involve merging three-seat clusters and having each of these large constituencies elect three MPs instead of one; and electing them by Single Transferrable Vote rather than by First Past The Post; just as was used in Labour's deputy leadership election.
The STV element ensures that people's votes really do count, making a fairer system and allowing smaller parties a better chance, particularly if an incumbent party has acted with arrogance.
The constituency link would be protected. Although the constituencies would be larger and each party would pick three candidates, the parties would not choose the order of those candidates.
In multi-member constituencies by STV, there would be very few safe seats and in most constituencies, a lazy or unpopular politician could find themselves easily ousted by an opposition MP or even by one of their own party. Voters would benefit from the competition and sometimes co-operation between three MPs.
AWS would be abolished while providing for greater representation of women. Labour could insist on target seats having two women candidates of three yet still allow a space for one man. There could also be an insistence that all Labour slates include at least one woman. If we were daring, we could pass a law ensuring that all parties' slates contain at least one woman and one man.
My proposal would link the best of PR with the best of the current system, and be entirely focused on empowering voters. Making politicians more accountable will make government better and there will be no more MPs who can take their seats for granted.
Posted by joshloewenstein on January 24, 2008
