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September 24, 2009
Trade Unions in historic shift from opposing electoral reform debate
Bringing you fanastic news from the TUC Congress - which last week voted in favour of instigating a proper debate on electoral reform.
Nearly a century since the TUC first resolved, without dissent, that “no system of election can be satisfactory which does not give opportunity to all parties to obtain representation proportional to their voting strength”, the fact that the trade union movement in 2009 has committed itself to instigating a debate on the introduction of proportional representation is highly significant.
This is the full text of what was agreed:
'Congress recognises that democratic renewal also requires elected politicians to be properly representative of, and accountable to, their constituents and therefore calls on the General Council to instigate a debate within the trade union movement on change in the current parliamentary electoral system towards a system of proportional representation'
Proposing the amendment, Chris Baugh (Assistant General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union) explained that his union had reached its conclusion about the importance of moving to a fairer voting system from the experience of their own "Make My Vote Count" campaign. In order to open the way for a politics where every trade union member had the chance to vote for a party that really represents their views, PCS believes that it would be necessary to move away from the First Past the Post voting system, and encourages other unions to reflect on the need for meaningful electoral reform.
Significantly, the motion was carried with the support of some of the unions that are affiliated to the Labour party. In doing so, they have sent a signal ahead to Gordon Brown ahead of Labour's conference beginning next week, that electoral reform is now being considered as a critical step in reshaping politics to meet the needs of voters in the 21st Century.
It is worth remembering that Brown announced to the House of Commons on June 10th that the Labour government would:
…be prepared to propose change if there is a broad consensus in the country that it would strengthen our democracy and our politics by improving the effectiveness and legitimacy of both government and parliament; and by enhancing the level and quality of representation and public engagement. [and]..., we will set out proposals for taking this debate forward.
Now we are starting to see that broad consensus really emerge.
Posted by malcolmclark on September 24, 2009
Comments
I warmly welcome the TUC's resolution on proportional representation (PR) and I wish the TU movement success in convincing the wider Labour movement.
However, the need for PR is not the only reason to reform the voting system. A good voting system should also give voters a better choice of candidates, improve the representation of under-represented non-party groups (such as women and ethnic minorities), give constituents a choice of MPs and make MPs more accountable to voters (e.g. on their expenses).
The best - probably the only - system to achieve all this is the Single Transferable Vote (STV), which was recently introduced so successfully for local government elections in Scotland.
Posted by: Anthony Tuffin at September 25, 2009 10:20 AM
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