Electoral Reform

Previous, Next

This photo is a view along the canal in Hebden Bridge.

I spent yesterday afternoon wandering around Hebden Bridge, more about that in yesterday’s post. It was also the day that local councils were counting the results of the local and mayoral elections the day before.

As I wandered around the town, I had to keep looking at my mobile phone to see how the counts were going. They were not good for the big established parties, the Tories and Labour. Both lost around two-thirds of their councillors. The main beneficiary was Reform, though the Liberals also gained seats.

One of the elections was for the Mayor of Doncaster. Labour won with 23,805 votes (32.4%); Reform was second with 23,107 (31.5%), very close; the Tories were third with 18,982 (25.9%). Because of the first past the post system, labour won with just 32.4% of the vote. Over 50% of people who voted did not vote for Labour. The turnout was just over 32%, very, very poor. If you look at the politics, 32.4% voted for left wing Labour. 62.8%, the majority, voted for right wing parties (The Tories and Reform). Doncaster ended up with a Labour mayor and a Reform council!

In last year’s general election, Labour got 412 seats, around 65% of the seats in parliament, with just 33.7% (219) of the vote; the Tories 121 seats with 23.7% (154); the Liberal Democrats 72 with 12.2% (79); Reform 5 seats with 14.3% (93); and the Greens 4 with 6.7% (43). The figures in brackets show the number of seats as a percentage of the vote gained. Labour won the most seats, but they did not have a majority of voters. The turnout was around 60%, it’s no wonder people don’t bother voting.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that there is a problem with our voting system, first past the post, a big, big problem.

We need to move towards proportional representation. Back in January I joined the Electoral Reform Society, when I realised things must change.

Their website covers the issue in detail (far better than I ever can), including the different types of proportional representation, and makes interesting reading.

Previous, Next