I had hoped to comment on election results this evening, but have been largely out of action today due to having a very painful otitis externa. But, I offer this summary issued at 5pm by the Electoral Reform Society, pointing out the injustice in many of the results, even if there is some pleasure to be had from them:
- In Tameside Labour took 90% of the seats despite securing just 48% of the vote while the Liberal Democrats, Greens and Independents got no seats despite securing almost a quarter of the vote (23%) between them.
- In Braintree the Conservatives gain over half the seats (53%) despite securing just 37% of the votes cast.
- In Cotswold, while the Liberal Democrats' 47% vote share secured them almost two-thirds (65%) of the seats, the Conservative's 43% of vote left them with just over a quarter (27%).
- In Broxbourne the Conservatives gained 90% of the seats with just 50% of the votes cast leaving no representation for the Green Party, Liberal Democrats and Independents despite receiving a combined 20% of the vote
- In Bassetlaw Labour gained 79% of the seats with just 48% of the vote.
- In North Devon the Liberal Democrats gained a majority of seats (52%) despite receiving just less than a third (31%) of the votes. Meanwhile Labour got no seats despite receiving 10% of the votes.
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I can do nothing but agree with you.
It’s a terrible system and we’ve put up with it for far too long.
Not sure I quite agree. Most people want a proportional system, and have for a while, but there is no mechanism for changing an elective system we can’t put up with any longer, since we give power away when we vote. In so many areas, such as public ownership, neither main political party is offering what people want, and there is no mechanism to make them. We can vote, but that has no impact on party policy. Even within the Labour party, the majority voted for electoral reform, and its not been adopted as party policy. So-called representative systems of govt the world over don’t work if by working you mean working on behalf of all. The evidence is there for all to see, from what’s happening in France, to world wars, to endemic poverty, vast inequalities, ecological destruction. I asked on here a few days ago, what’s the mechanism for making needed changes happen, and in all genuineness what’s the mechanism for replacing FPTP? As far as I can tell, only govt can do this, which kind of highlights the foundational problem with ceding power to a representative, how do you get it back?
C’mon now David, it’s obvious how you get it back. I’m no Einstein but even I can see how it could work.
These that we have just seen are local elections aren’t they? So the apparatus is already there – local Councils and their representatives and the people who vote for them.
You could build a system of true local representation through that – but it’s just not exploited is it? Councils in the country exist to execute centrally derived government policy, no questions asked, and general elections seem to exist in a world of their own. So what needs to happen is that ‘a government’ needs to empower cities or regions to act like feedback loops – not just passive deliverers of government policy.
Local government – whether regional or city based needs to be more empowered. The feelings of local people need to be taken more into account.
That’s the only way forward to make voting more meaningful and to change the link between local and central government.
The basics are already there, but the way it is used typically British – amateurish to a tee but also totally facile and in being so, does not deliver what it says on the tin.
We all know don’t we that the actual ‘feedback loops’ in this democracy unfortunately lie in the areas of lobbying and political donations. That is unacceptable and has to be changed as well. It’s corrupt.