Past the post is past its sell-by date
It’s only Sunday night and the fringe is buzzing merrily away. This may be day one of the conference but I’ve spoken at several fringe meetings already. Tonight’s was a first for me – the Make Votes Count rally alongside Patricia Hewitt, Charles Clarke and John Denham. I’m a later convert than some to the need for electoral reform and the introduction of proportional representation, but FPTP produces results out of all proportion to the views of the electorate. It is intellectually unsustainable and does not give the winner of a general election a mandate that is acceptable for any political party.
The gap between the share of the popular vote and the size of a parliamentary majority has always been out of kilter, but in the last 20 years the effect has been magnified in way it has never done before. Government swung from blue to red, but with huge parliamentary majorities.
Concentrating campaigning on ever decreasing number of seats is an inherent function of the way in which electoral politics is conducted these days. The consequence? A situation where the government of the country is effectively decided by voters in about 5% of the seats.
Just to be partisan for a minute, there’s another reason why proportional representation is good for Labour, as swell as in principle. Soon to be published research from Unlock Democracy (a joint venture of Charter 88 and the New Politics Network) shows that Conservative membership of local party associations is extremely volatile - basically according to whether the seat is winnable.
OK, so intuition might lead one to such an assumption anyway – except that the same research shows Labour membership spread far more evenly across all constituencies, whether target seats or not. Thus Labour is best placed to take advantage of a PR system, with activists spread all over the UK in a way that both the Tories (basically an English party now) and the Lib Dems (with patches of strong support but very unevenly spread) cannot match. In this respect, only Labour is a national party – something that would become especially important under PR
So much for the “what is good for us argument”. We absolutely have to go out and make the case, in the Labour Party, for PR on its merits too. Then of course we need the referendum on electoral reform that we were promised but which has not materialized – another demonstration of the current unaccountability of power in the UK. Yet it should be the public that decides both on the need for electoral reform and if so, what kind of system should be introduced.
I personally favour a system similar to that used in German elections, which has proportionality, sets reasonable electoral hurdles for smaller parties and retains a constituency link. But if we choose an additional member system, then we must also make it clear that the additional members must be selected by party members – not by officials or leaders. There’s a considerable variety of views within Labour that is all too often swept aside and which alienates both members – all those who did not campaign for us in May, for example – and the public too.
And this is where the inherent virtues of PR meld with real party advantage. We’re going to fight the next general election with a new party leader. We need to win back the trust of the electorate that has vanished in a puff of unaccountability. I cannot think of a policy change that indicates our openness better than a commitment to change the voting system and to change the way power is distributed in this country.