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June 11, 2009
Birmingham MP in referendum call
The Birmingham Post reports:
A referendum on changing Britain’s voting system could be held at the same time as the next general election, according to a Birmingham MP. Making Parliament more representative would help restore trust in politics and reduce support for extremism, said Richard Burden (Lab Northfield). But the public, and not politicians, should decide how the system changed.He called for citizen’s conventions to involve the public in discussions about the best voting system for the country. He also dismissed concerns that introducing proportional representation (PR) to the Commons could allow extremist parties such as the BNP to win seats, after they gained two MEPs in European elections fought under a version of PR.
He said: “If we have learned anything from the events of the past week, and actually it’s something we should have been learning over the past few years, it’s that the growth of the BNP and other forms of extremism is a political issue. We can’t disguise it by having a voting system which keeps the BNP at bay. We have to look instead at why that support is growing.”
Most systems of proportional representation include a threshold system, which prevents small parties from gaining any seats unless they win a certain level of support. However, this is often set at five per cent of the vote, while the BNP won 8.6 per cent of votes in the West Midlands. The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, wants discussions about a new voting system but there could be no change without evidence of “broad consensus in the country”.
Posted by malcolmclark on June 11, 2009
