David Brown of Make Voters Matter calls for proportional representation

Ballot box (credit Element5 Digital on Unsplash) — credit Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Dear Barnet Post

Last year’s Labour party conference overwhelmingly voted to adopt ‘proportional representation’ voting, where seats match our votes, for General Elections.

This year, Labours National Policy Forum has stated: “The flaws in the current voting system are contributing to the distrust and alienation we see in politics.”.

Labour recognises there is a problem with our current voting system, known as ‘First Past The Post’ (FPTP) one no other European country uses, except Belarus. Not a fortunate comparison.

But recognising there is a problem requires a solution, and about a matter just too important to ignore. The way we vote is how we play our part in the constitution and our democracy.

As Klina Jordan, CEO of Make Votes Matter, the campaign for electoral reform says, voting reform is “the keystone in a revitalised UK democracy.”

Indeed, the UK’s last constitutional reform, the devolution settlement with the new assemblies in Scotland, Wales, and London, Labour would not adopt the current voting system, it used proportional representation.

As north London MP Bambos Charalambous has said “It works very well. People understand it, and it delivers good government in all those regions.’

Our Westminster Parliament needs it too. The time is now.

David Brown
CoOrdinator, Make Votes Matter Nth London (LBs Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey, Islington, Westminster)

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