Cameron Has No Idea How to Restore Trust or Accountability
So the man styling himself as our next Prime Minister thinks that modernising our voting system is ‘crazy’. I think it’s quite revealing that he believes that a system genuinely representative of the people’s wishes (or in AV+’s case more representative) is a bad thing. Apparently the people must ‘feel like this is their parliament’, but actually making it more their parliament is out of the question. Cheers Dave, but the only way it can worry about what I worry about is if it represents me better than it does now. My MP is Joan Ruddock, who because she controls a safe Labour (or in her case New Labour) seat doesn’t have to represent my wishes at all; first-past-the-post sees to that. I’ve even debated my wishes with her, and she didn’t want to know; why should she? There’s no constitutional mechanism to make her. Cameron is right when he champions select committees to increase accountability within parliament – no question – but that can only be part of wider constitutional reform which includes a more proportional voting system. And the Commons should have more control over its timetable – the legislature genuinely does need its powers ramped up against the now almighty executive, but if the legislature doesn’t represent the people’s wishes better than it already does, that’ll only do so much good. If the new parliament’s concerns go no further than continuing to placate swing voters in marginal seats, noone’ll notice much difference. Willie Sullivan from Vote for a Change said:
“Under our current system, a nation of 45 million voters will leave it to a quarter of a million in the marginals to decide the outcome of the next election.
“It’s the equivalent of letting only people who live in Brighton decide the government of the United Kingdom. The question of who runs Britain is all our business, and for that we need a vote that really counts.
“Polls have shown time and again that people are prepared to break with the past.
“MPs can stick their fingers in their ears and pretend its business as usual, or they can help make 2010 the last broken election.”
It’s a great illustration of the representational failure at the heart of first-past-the-post. Intriguingly for the post-Brown era beginning in May, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said:
“We’ve still got a 19th century political system trying to address 20th century problems and in my book the whole system – the election to the Commons, the Lords, local government and how it’s organised, fixed terms parliaments – they should all be on a ballot.
“We should have what I would call a reset referendum that would reset the political system in a way that can actually address modern problems by getting power where it belongs, by checking power at the right places, by giving more rights and making sure rights of the individual are safe-guarded.”
Frustratingly though, other members of the parliamentary Labour Party don’t get it:
Labour former minister Tom Harris, MP for Glasgow South, raised laughter as he asked Straw: “Do you attribute the stainless reputation of Italian politicians to the fact that they have proportional representation?”
Of course PR (which wrongly isn’t on the table for this referendum) hasn’t saved Italian politics from total dysfunction, but the reasons for that aren’t down to the voting system. Take a look at Germany, which is also governed by a PR system. Their system has been a model for the Western world since 1949 – fairly representing the people has allowed them successfully to absorb a failed state (the GDR), their 5% representational threshold for parliament has made it hard for extreme parties to get into the Bundestag in the first place, and even when they’ve made it that far they’ve always fizzled out. Coalition politics and a culture of compromise has brought about remarkable stability, not to mention the necessary diversity into Germany politics. Britain, with first-past-the-post, has descended into complete ambivalence, and why not, when our elected representatives do whatever it takes to retain power, not to fulfill their side of the political contract?
The House of Commons voted 365-187 for a referendum on AV+ after the election, but it remains unclear if the bill will get passed before the general election in May.
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Well that was 3 minutes of absolutely nothing! The only things he mentioned that makes any sense was the brief mention of electing those in the oversight committees, less party whipping and reducing parliament breaks. Which are fantastic idea!
Now is the perfect time to discuss electoral reform. At a time when public confidence is at an all time low, this is the perfect time to reassure the public that there can and will be drastic change which is sadly needed. However i think that the only reason Gordon Brown has mentioned this at all is to reassure the voters and try and get some more votes. If the expenses scandal had not occurred i dont think this would have even been mentioned. It is a massive shame that it has taken such an event for this to be even discussed.
Although, when First past the post is the simplest method and voter turn out is still very low, do you really expect the common masses to turn up and vote using a more complicated system?
I think its important to note that this hasnt reached the labour parties’ manifesto yet. Infact the only manifesto it has reached it that of the Liberal Democrats. Conservatives mention sweeping reforms (non of which will happen – there is also no mention of young people at all. No wonder young people are so disenchanted with politics) and labour mentions tougher rules, devolution and REMOVING POWER FROM THE EXECUTIVE!!! (on a side note am i the only one not only appauled but made to feel physically sick at that idea!) but no mention of a complete change of the overall system.
The only reason that Germany has the system it does it to prevent parties like the Nazi party ever gaining power again. Although as Bonnie Greer pointed out at the Progressive London Conference, the Nazi party got in through appealing to the masses and then showing their extremist views. This could still happen with PR.
I have waffled i know. I do think PR is a very good idea however it will take a lot of good public relations to make it appeal to the masses and to get them to come out and vote. The only party that i believe will do this is the Liberal Democrats. And even then, this is only a start. There will still be a long way to go to restore the publics confidence in their government. It wont happen overnight and i doubt even at the end of the next parliament unlike David Cameron seems to think.
You’ve presented important issues which regularly get ignored within progressive arguments, which was actually the reason I set this blog up to uncover in the first place. Why do left-wing arguments find it so hard to take hold? Part of the reason is what you started out with – they’re used by self-serving politicians who really don’t care about them at all. Brown hasn’t cared about changing the voting system to benefit the people after 13 years and is only part-converted now, when he risks losing power; it’s hardly a positive message to lead into a referendum with.
I think the complexity issue is really important. It’s very easy to see PR as a panacaea when there are attitudes at a much smaller level than even the voting system which are playing into the disengagement from politics. You named one of them – the political parties’ complete disinterest in even mentioning young people, but others came out last night in Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe. We know the gutlessness and corruption at the heart of mainstream politics – Blair in particular flung that in all of our faces – some major demonstrations of goodwill are needed before we can even believably head towards a referendum on the voting system. But maybe moving to AV+ and showing that it works might be a step in the right direction? I don’t know the answer.
You’re dead right – Cameron isn’t offering the answers, and nor is Brown. It’s clear that the ideas are out there, but connecting them back to everyday people will take time. Even simple, honest door-to-door politicking would make a difference. It’s good enough for the BNP and the other smaller parties – why does Labour for example find it so very hard to talk honestly to everyday voters and to deliver the dead simple things they ask for?