The Labour manifesto should make a clear commitment to reform the House of Commons and local council elections.
Labour should say clearly "We want a fairer electoral system: not because it will help UKIP - even though it will; not because it will help the Greens, and the SNP, and Plaid Cymru - even though it will; but because it is RIGHT."
The impact on the electorate of seeing a party doing something which will help other parties, and thereby deliver something fairer, will be hugely positive.
The tories will never push for reform and in refusing it they will show that they put party advantage before national interest and fairness.
Please, Labour, get on with it.
For local councils, where we already have multi-member wards, propose STV.
For House of Commons, propose an amendment to FPTP whereby the popular vote (within each of the four UK countries) is used to adjust the awarding of seats to put it in line with the total votes cast in each UK country.
Any reform will bring coalition government - but in a five-party landscape (in England), majority governments resting on less than a third of the popular vote would be even more of an affront to democracy than we already have. Coalition government, with all major parties proportionally represented in cabinet, is the only defensible approach.
Labour should say clearly "We want a fairer electoral system: not because it will help UKIP - even though it will; not because it will help the Greens, and the SNP, and Plaid Cymru - even though it will; but because it is RIGHT."
The impact on the electorate of seeing a party doing something which will help other parties, and thereby deliver something fairer, will be hugely positive.
The tories will never push for reform and in refusing it they will show that they put party advantage before national interest and fairness.
Please, Labour, get on with it.
For local councils, where we already have multi-member wards, propose STV.
For House of Commons, propose an amendment to FPTP whereby the popular vote (within each of the four UK countries) is used to adjust the awarding of seats to put it in line with the total votes cast in each UK country.
Any reform will bring coalition government - but in a five-party landscape (in England), majority governments resting on less than a third of the popular vote would be even more of an affront to democracy than we already have. Coalition government, with all major parties proportionally represented in cabinet, is the only defensible approach.