The New Dark Age

'Socialism or Barbarism'

UK: The proportional representation bill is coming…

23 July, 2010 — Take Back Parliament

On Monday the referendum bill on our voting system will be debated by MPs in parliament.

This is a historic occasion. Many of us have waited a long time for a chance to make our system fairer. As one supporter told me just yesterday:

“This is not just dry, geeky Westmister politics – ultimately this could be the difference between a thriving democracy and a state which continues to be ruled by big money and the tabloid press.”

I couldn’t agree more. The dinosaurs backing the ‘No’ campaign tried their hardest to stop this referendum happening but they failed.   Then they thought that by offering a referendum on AV and not a proportional system that we’d give up. This dishonest move will not stop me from campaigning for a ‘Yes’ – and it shouldn’t stop you.   

So don’t delay any longer. Follow the link below and fill in the form to find out whats happening in your area.

http://www.takebackparliament.com/page/s/billishere

We’ve already set up a dozen local groups and a dozen more are planned. Helping grow these groups will be vital to our success as a campaign. Don’t delay, because if you don’t act now, the opportunity for change could be lost for decades.

Join us now and make change happen:

http://www.takebackparliament.com/page/s/billishere

With best wishes,
Andy May

P.S Thanks to those of you who wrote to their MPs about the voting threshold – nearly 5000 letters was a great response!  We’ll let you know of further developments soon.

barovsky's avatar

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barovsky

5 responses to “UK: The proportional representation bill is coming…”

  1. Clark Avatar
    Clark

    I thought the proposal was for a referendum on the existing system vs the Alternative Vote (AV) system. AV is not a proportional system. In most circumstances it won’t return a government as quite as DISproportional as the current system, but it only returns one MP per constituency and thus reduces all voter preference within a constituency to a single choice. So to take a daft, extreme example, if every constituency voted 51% Con and 49% Lab, we’d end up with 100% Con MPs, same as the current system.

    Thank goodness no one has proposed the Party List system. Shush, don’t give them ideas!

    If you assume that voters will vote much the same under AV as under the current system, you get slightly less Labs and Cons, and correspondingly more Lib Dems. Consequently, the Powers That Be are not too afraid of AV, and thus are offering it to shut up the growing movement for electoral reform. However, I think our wonderful ‘leaders’ may have blundered…

    At present masses of voters vote negatively. Trying to keep a Lab or a Con MP out, they vote for whoever is in second place, rather than whoever they really prefer. But once the electorate learn how to work the AV system, they can place such negative votes as their second choice, with the candidate they truly prefer as their first choice. Doing so does not risk failing to vote against their most hated party, as if their preferred candidate gets few votes s/he is eliminated, and those votes get transfered to the second choices on those ballot papers.

    If voters wise up to this, a cascade effect should follow, with increasing numbers of independent and smaller-party MPs. Majority governments would become increasingly unlikely, the Party Whip system would thus lose its stranglehold, and parliamentary debates would become far more important – having a convincing argument would, at last, matter more than party discipline.

    Well, we can always hope.

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  2. InI Avatar
    InI

    For anyone interested in finding out about what proportional representation is, in all its flavours, see ‘Proportional representation and Brown’s opportunist ploy’ By Moshe Machover.

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  3. InI Avatar
    InI

    I agree up to a point. However given that we have no control over what kind of PR system they’re going to ‘give’ us, there is no guarantee that we won’t get a system that preserves the existing status quo. Worse still, we have no political voice with which to challenge the political class.

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  4. Clark Avatar
    Clark

    True. I still intend to support the change to Alternative Vote, for two reasons:

    1) It enables voters to vote for smaller parties and independent candidates without risking wasting their vote and thereby failing to vote against a worse candidate from one of the major parties.

    2) Given the anti-democratic nature of Conservative and Labour, it’s the only change we’re going to be offered. If accepted, AV will weaken the power of the Big Two, and so could serve as a step towards a better system.

    Point (1) requires that voters learn to use AV effectively, by placing their vote for a smaller party or independent candidate at a higher priority than their ‘backup vote’ for a major party.

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  5. InI Avatar
    InI

    Of course the only problem with the proposed bill is that it’s presented to us as a fait accomplis, there is no possibility of debate or discussion on what kind of proportional representation system would the best. As usual, it’s the political class deciding what’s best for us.

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