johninnit

Here’s a new toy for Friday. The TUC has been working on electoral reform issues again, after a break of 50 years. A motion at Congress this year called for the TUC to restart debate in the movement on a fairer voting system for UK elections.

There’s a new ToUChstone report out today on the background to the issue of electoral reform, and a roundup of the options on the table and the impact each might have (you can download it here), and you can also take a practical walkthrough yourself online with the electoral reform test.  (more…)

Brian Eno is also very concerned about our dodgy voting system, and is using MySociety’s swanky new PledgeBank to recruit fellow supporters to MVC’s campaign. He wants you to join him in his recruiting efforts, and has started a pledge that you can join online. Sign Brian’s pledge here. It’s also worth checking out PledgeBank anyway – a very nice idea for garnering the support you need for a voluntary project without the risk of only 3 people and a dog turning up to your fanfare event and making you look a bit silly in front of the local press.

Back as a kiddy I was a fervent supporter of proportional representation (about the only chance my then party would have had of getting double figure seats). Since ‘97 though, it’s been tempting to think pragmatically and do anything that’ll prolong Labour’s time in office and artifically extend their majority, so my interest – and I think the interest of a number of people – has waned a bit. This election has seen a party get a pretty good majority with only around a quarter of the potential electorate tuning in, and whilst part of me thinks “woo, yay!” at the prospect, the niggling doubts that democracy is growing further away from the voters are harder and harder to keep quiet.
I’ve always been more in favour of Additional Member systems than Single Transferable Vote ones (AM adds extra MPs, who are allocated based on the proportion of the vote – whereas STV gives you a 1,2,3 choice for your MP. The votes for the lowest-placed candidate are then examined and the 2nd preference counts towards the tally, and so on, til there are only 2 in the race). STV gives you the “least worst” candidate, rather than the best one, and promoted 3 party rather than multi-party politics. Interesting though to see Jack Straw hinting that STV might be a possbility for future elections – it’s definitely better than what we’ve got, and should also bring in more partnership and less ping-pong in politics if the 3rd party is strengthened.
A middle ground would be STV+, which is not an expensive way of getting footy on TV, but an amalgam of the 2 systems, adding an AM-style party list to the STV system to give 4th and 5th parties a look-in too. I’ve signed up at www.makemyvotecount.org.uk, which is pushing for this option, at what seems like a pretty opportune time to do so, whilst there’s a good bit of media interest. Come on board with us and let’s see what we can get Jack to agree to! (Glad I’m not one of the unfortunates who’ll have to actually count the votes!!)

There’s been a lot of hot air of late about tactical voting, and how disaffected Labour supporters can use it to ‘give Blair a bloody nose’ by threatening the majorities of safe seat MPs, or cutting the overall majority. Very silly, and only really for those self-important whingers who that politics is more about the fun of navel-gazing than about making a difference to people who might need it.

That said, I am very much in favour of this new (well, new again this time) tactical voting initiative, www.tacticalvoter.net. It lets people in marginal seats swap votes with each other, so they won’t miss out on voting for the party they prefer and wasting their votes. It scores on both fronts:

1: it’s about keeping the Tories down and out, by getting the best result for Labour and LibDem. Real result – let Labour get on with Government for the people, whilst getting a LibDem opposition would mean some sensible scrutiny from a civil liberties standpoint.

2: if you want a whinge, it gets the protest vote in there too (and a sensible protest this time). By mucking with the electoral system, it’s helping make the case against first-past-the-post, and towards a way of voting which actually reflects the government people want.

So go check it out – very clever site for analysis of constituencies too. It only applies to a smaller number of seats, so not in safe ones. Doesn’t apply to me as I’ll be voting Labour with a very strong chance of an MP with a good majority, but if I were in a Tory/LibDem battleground, I’d certainly be doing this.

www.tacticalvoter.net