I hadn't realised it was so long since I had lasted posted on this blog - we were busy in Westminster up to the end of July, and then I had a couple of weeks holiday, and I never got round to posting. But back to the blog now!
For the first time in a few years, we are back at Westminster for a couple of weeks this September. The main item on the first day back (6 September)will be the first stage in the new government's plans to introduce the 'Alternative Vote'(AV)combined with a reduction in number of parliamentary constituencies.
The government has been criticised, rightly in my view, for the way it has combined these two issues in one Bill, and has also refused to allow proper 'pre-legsilative' scrutiny of the Bill - something the LibDems in particular were very keen on before they became part of the government. The only real reason for rushing the legislation through and linking these in this way is because of the deal between the Tories and LibDems (the LibDems want AV, and the Tories want to change constituency sizes).
I, and Labour (and I suspect many of the smaller parties) won't support the way this is being handled. I am in favour of electoral reform, have been for many years, so I don't see why taking a few more months to do this properly can't be found. After all, that would allow a proper debate on other forms of electoral reform. AV is not proper proportional representation - it is (marginally) better than the present system, in my view, but I would like to see Parliament having a chance to at least debate proper proportional representation, and having a chance to vote on such alternatives rather than being presented, in effect, with AV or nothing.
I'll be coming back to this subject later, I'm sure.
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2 comments:
I have a number of worries about the introduction of AV - and about the outcome of any referendum on the topic:
1. It's being grossly misrepresented in every tabloid I've seen (which I admit isn't many) as being 'a form of PR'.
2. It's not PR, but if it goes through it will be an excuse for the anti-reform types to say "See, you got your reform, now shut up!" - rather as the anti-same-sex-marriage types have been, for the past few years, going "See, you've got civil partnerships now, they're just the same, now shut up!"
3. If it _doesn't_ go through it's going to be used as an excuse to give up on electoral reform altogether. Not unlike the Edinburgh referendum on congestion charging - I for one am in favour of congestion charging, but the execution that was being proposed was beyond moronic, and we weren't asked "Do you fancy some form of congestion charging?" - we were asked, "Do you want our stupid congestion charging scheme that we made up on the back of a napkin?"
4. Say we _did_ get AV. It closes off some very workable options for us - without us going backwards and looking a bit silly anyway - because once we have an instant run-off system it's going to look a bit daft if we then say "Oh, but actually we'd like a PR system that uses FPTP after all". I seem to remember your preferred method being an additional member system of the type used in the Scottish Parliament - and that uses FPTP for the actual count, doesn't it? Once we had AV in place it limits your further options - AV+, STV, etc etc - otherwise you have to go backwards and that will be very easy for the opponents to rubbish. Now I quite like STV but I don't think it's necessary to be that hardcore when we could just make the constituences a bit bigger and have list MPs for proportionality.
All in all, I think he Lib Dems have been comprehensively screwed by this whole mess (and it's basically their own damn fault). I still have my hopes that they're going to stop the Conservatives from doing anything too horrific (poor-baiting budgets aside), but I have little hope of seeing anything really positive emerge (except for the scrapping of the NIR and ID cards, and honestly they were never going to work anyway).
I'm beginning to wonder whether we aren't in such a mess right now that it really doesn't matter who's in power - they were still going to have to basically just mop things up as best they could and there are only so many ways to do it. Maybe it's best to just belt up and take it for the next few years and just uncover our eyes when it's all over.
I'd be interested in what you think of this open letter I read today:
http://andrewhickey.info/2010/08/15/an-open-letter-to-the-labour-party/
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