Pepsi politics has lost its fizz

Under first past the post, British politics has been reduced to a binary marketing skit, like the old Pepsi Challenge: Do you prefer Coke or Pepsi? Red or blue? Which tastes sweeter? Never mind the health of the belching body politic, which has become toothless and bloated, both Labour and the Conservatives want you to stick to your tribe, keep swigging the snake oil, and try to ignore the bitter aftertaste.

I don’t know if you’d noticed, but there’s an election looming… The sixth general election of the 21st century will be conducted according to an un-democratic Victorian system established when Gladstone was prime minister and General Gordon was marching toward disaster in Khartoum.

But what’s the problem with first past the post (FPTP)? The traditional advocacy says it’s familiar and it delivers strong and stable government. Well, alas, our recent experience conclusively refutes that. The number of prime ministers and re-shuffles has increased as our international standing plummets.

OK, but we had a referendum on proportional representation in 2011 and 67.9% said, “No thanks”. Yes, we did have a referendum. But that was a decade ago, before the Chilcott Report on Iraq was published, before Brexit, and before Johnson, Truss and everything else that’s helped to decimate faith in British democracy. As a footnote, the 2011 PR referendum wasn’t even offering a proportional system like the single transferable vote (STV), it proposed a flawed mechanism called the alternative vote (AV) which would have served only to sustain two-party, heads or tails politics – which is probably why David Cameron insisted on it.

Interestingly, the Conservatives use AV to choose their own party leaders. They’ve updated their system three times since 2019 to make it work better for internal Conservative Party elections, but they don’t want you or I to be treated fairly at the ballot box. Why? Simple – it’s not in the Conservative Party’s interest: FPTP helped the Conservatives rule for 65% of the 20th century, and they’d like to continue that trend, thank you very much.

Of course, the Conservatives have been accused frequently of enjoying “one rule for them, and another for everyone else”, but they’re not the only party that uses AV for its leadership elections but opposes electoral reform for everybody else.

The Labour party under Sir Keir Starmer won’t give you fair votes either. In fact, it might be interesting, come the next general election, to ask Mrs Hart and Miss Dollimore, exactly why they think millions of ordinary British people should effectively be disenfranchised by the electoral system they both currently support? Is that democracy?

Sir Keir’s stance is surprising for a traditionally progressive party. It’s even more surprising when you learn that last year, Labour conference overwhelmingly backed a motion to embrace proportional representation and to include it in the next manifesto. The motion stated that FPTP had “catastrophically failed to represent people’s wishes, needs and votes…” Even as a Lib Dem, I couldn’t put it better myself. And don’t hold your breath. There’s very little chance a Labour government will introduce it during their first term. And will there be a second?

Here’s a quick quiz on elections, just for fun. (Caveat: it’s actually not very funny).

1) In 2005, which country elected a majority government on a mere 35.4% of the popular vote? (i.e. 64.6% of voters didn’t support that government);
2) Again in 2005, which country saw the losing party win 72,544 more votes than the winning party?
3) In 2017, which country saw 74.4% of votes wasted?
4) In 1951 and February 1974, in which country was the ‘wrong’ government elected? (according to share of popular vote.)
5) Lastly, an easy question – does this feel like representative democracy?

I suspect you’ve guessed the answer to all the quiz questions. It wasn’t some banana republic, it was Britain. And when you spell it out, isn’t it astonishing? It’s like sitting on the sofa and suddenly looking at that pending DIY project and thinking, “How on earth have I not fixed that yet??!”

To unpack the above, FPTP does not perform that basic democratic function – it does not apportion seats in parliament according to votes cast. It means, invariably, the minority rules over the majority, and so blithely ignores its views, its needs and its concerns. Does that go a little way to explain why we’re all so cheesed off with politics and politicians and feel we don’t really have a voice? When people feel ignored, things go wrong. What better explanation could there be for the impulses behind Brexit? We cannot continue to ignore people.

Under a proportional system like the single transferable vote, if a party wins 20% of the votes cast for instance, it gets 20% of the seats in parliament. It means parliament accurately reflects the needs and desires of the British people. It’s a system used in Northern Ireland, the Republic, Malta, Scotland and Australia for some or all of their elections. Oh, and it was conceived in Britain.

The next election is a watershed ballot. In terms of green policy, the NHS, industrial policy, defence, growth, education, the cost of living, migration, European diplomacy etc etc etc. The choices we make couldn’t be more critical.

Electoral reform will re-calibrate our politics and give us back our voice. It will eliminate marginal seats, safe seats and tactical voting, and could foster long-term strategic planning and promote a pragmatic political consensus that works for the many, not the few. It could rid us of self-defeating polarisation and also stop the sort of partisan buck-passing that’s led over decades to the present debacle over RAAC. The country’s literally falling apart and it’s time to start rebuilding it – and rebuilding faith in democracy.

But I know many people are only focussed on one thing, they just want rid of this Conservative government– even some Conservatives want rid of them. It may feel like the crocodile nearest the boat, but it isn’t. If you want real political change, it’s going to require more than switching direction on the merry-go-round for the next five years.

A vote for Labour isn’t a vote for change, alas. It’s presently a vote for the status quo. It’s a five year reprieve from the hard-right New Conservatives, not a deliverance. Didn’t you see Liz Truss this week auditioning to succeed Sunak? Warming up to cut benefits, abolish the top rate of tax, row back on green commitments and raise the retirement age? An inevitable return to ideological Truss-onomics is what Labour’s denial of electoral reform ultimately means. So Sir Keir is sacrificing your futures for Labour’s political fortunes.

So, vote for whomever you like in 2030. But vote for proportional representation in 2024. Because democracy has your name on it – ‘Demos Kratos’, the power of the people. And it’s time to tell Labour and the Conservatives, you want it back.

Image Credits: Guy Harris .