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February 27, 2008
Frank Field's plan to strengthen Britain's democracy
Two days ago, Malcolm commented on Frank Field's proposal that US-style primaries should be introduced in Westminster elections. This proposal is actually part of a larger plan to strengthen Britain's democracy put together by Mr. Field and Policy Exchange entitled "Back from Life Support: Remaking Representative and Responsible Government in Britain." Some of the key changes include:
1. The right to object to a too limited range of candidates (i.e. allowing for a "none of the above" option on a ballot.)
2. Primaries to choose the winning candidate in safe seats
3. Adopting a two stage election process so that, in the first instance, only candidates with 50 per cent plus one of the votes are returned immediately, with a play off between the top two candidates thereafter
4. Extending public positions that are elected beginning with police chiefs and housing association bosses
5.Reforming the House of Lords along group representation lines
6. A parliamentary timetable to reflect the reality that 70 per cent of legislation now comes from Brussels
7. Fixed time limits between general elections
8. Entrenching House of Commons powers to check the executive with select committee chairman to be nominated and voted upon by the House of Commons in a secret ballot, select committees approving all major public appointments relevant to their sphere of influence, select committees having parliamentary time to introduce their own legislation, and a requirement that each new page of legislation should be matched by taking a page off the statute book
Again, as Malcolm mentioned in his earlier blog post, what is stopping Frank Field from taking this a step further and asking for electoral reform? Just as electoral reform would help fix the symptoms he is trying to fix with his primary idea, some of the flaws in our democracy these other suggestions are attempting to reform would be helped greatly by a change to a more proportional voting system.
Posted by joshloewenstein on February 27, 2008
