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February 25, 2008
A Field Day
US-style primaries should be introduced in Britain to select Westminster candidates, an ex-minister has urged. Labour MP Frank Field said a pilot scheme should be held in safe seats such as his Birkenhead constituency. He called for British primaries to be run by the Electoral Commission, with everyone on the electoral register allowed to pick who will be each party's candidate at the general election. Mr Field also called for a two-stage process so that only candidates with more than 50% of the vote can win their party's nomination, with a run-off held between the top two candidates in other cases. [BBC news website]
Frank Field deserves some credit for being innovative and at least proposing something to help us out of the hole we are now in, democracy-wise. But you have to wonder what's stopping him making the logical leap to getting rid of safe seats altogether - ie. electoral reform. Instead, he is trying to tackle the symptoms rather than the cause. He could do all that he wants his proposal to do - a move from a selectorate (of party members) to the wider public, and a winner needing more than 50% of the vote - by getting rid of First-Past-the-Post and replacing it with a more proportional system. Heck, even the Alternative Vote would fulfil his aims. And whatever we go for, he can still have the primaries for selection of candidates, which are a good additional idea and would cement the benefits of making votes count on polling day itself.
Posted by malcolmclark on February 25, 2008
