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July 11, 2008
There are no votes in the poor
As Fraser Nelson quotes from Jo Moore, the ex-Labour special adviser, in his insightful Spectator article on the Glasgow East by-election. Fraser continues:
“But she’s right: the most deprived parts of Britain are safe Labour seats - today’s equivalent of rotten boroughs. You don’t mean a thing if your seat is not a swing, so people in places like Glasgow East are never canvassed. The views of swing seat voters, however, are treated as utmost priorities in Westminster. This is a huge drawback to our system. Those in sink estates are regarded as being devoid of political capital for any mainstream party. The welfare ghettos are, for Westminster, terra incognita."
Hat-tip to Mark Thompson for pointing out the article. In his email to me, Mark says:
"Fraser points out that the FPTP system leads to areas like Glasgow East being effectively shut out of the political system. As we in the electoral reform movement well know this is a natural consequence of our current system and actually applies to the majority of seats. Fraser does goes on to say it is one of the main drawbacks of the current system. Maybe I am wrong but I was not aware of The Spectator being in favour of PR."
Indeed. But Fraser did speak on a Conservative Action for Electoral Reform fringe event last year, so is not afraid of engaging with the issue. Even if, as you can see from this quote from that meeting, he is in two minds about what the solution should be.
"Britain has a rotten voting system, with an outageous built-in bias against the Conservartives who need a ten-point lead to win a simple majority. England is fast becoming a Tory country governmed by a Jockocracy. But rather than invite the Liberal Democrats into perpetual government with proportional representation, we should fix the current system."
Posted by malcolmclark on July 11, 2008
