Lessons in democracy from Labour

Hmm, well one person has decided to get all party political with the proportional representation debate.

Forgetting the arguments about PR versus FPTP, which are well rehearsed on both sides, what interests me is the Lib Dem obsession with PR. It tells you everything you need to know about them. They don’t believe they have the policies, the calibre of staff, or a leader that’s good enough to be voted into government. Nor apparently do they ever expect they will. That’s why they put all their hopes for gaining real political power into a change of political system.

The thing about FPTP, though, isn’t just that it makes it difficult for smaller parties to gain power. It also makes it difficult for equally-sized parties to gain power. The current system is shamelessly biased towards Labour.

Scribbler continues:

Such a lack of ambition and conviction is embarrassing. If they don’t have the confidence to believe they can ever form a government on their own merit, then why should anybody else?

That’s nothing. The real embarassment is that Labour need to cling on to such an antiquated system in order to remain in government. A majority of 66, but with just 35% of the votes! Genius!

Looking into PR was a Labour manifesto commitment in 1997. Sure enough, they commissioned the Jenkins Report. And then ignored the report’s recommendations.

Mind you, I don’t suppose we can expect too much from Labour. They aren’t exactly the most democratic of parties.

Police later used powers under the Terrorism Act to prevent Mr Wolfgang’s re-entry…

Now hecklers can be terrorists aswell! Brilliant! Before long, everybody will be able to join in!

3 comments

  1. Oh now come on Doctor V, it’s not like they went in with black shirts and battens! Being dragged across several chairs by burly minders never did any old person/terrorist any harm.

    As for PR – Labour have never been that keen on it since they realised they didn’t need it. If the Lib Dems got a landslide victory at the next election, you’d go off the idea too. And it’s worth bearing in mind that people would cast their votes differently under a different system, and so translating the figures from a FPTP election into a PR election result tells you nothing. You never know, less people might vote for the Lib Dems under PR! Bet that would put you off PR too.

    Anyway, Tories conference next week, so we can both have a laugh.

  2. For the record, I was interested in PR before I ever voted for the Lib Dems. As crazy as it might sound, PR is one of the major reasons I voted Lib Dem; I’m not into PR just because I voted Lib Dem.