David Brown of Make Voters Matter North London on the case for proportional representation

The UK houses of parliament, viewed from across the road at the top of The Mall — The palace of Westminster – home to the UK’s houses of parliament

Dear Barnet Post,

Politics isn’t working. Westminster is locked in crisis, while life is getting harder for ordinary people.

This government, like almost all since the Second World War, came to office on only a minority of the vote, but able to wield 100% of the power. The views of the majority who didn’t back them get disregarded.

In most constituencies, people know who will win long before the election, because the same party has held the seat for decades. Millions of votes across the country essentially count for nothing.

As a result, political parties end up focusing their resources on the small cluster of voters in marginal seats who will decide the outcome of a general election. Everyone else, meanwhile, is left out in the cold.

The consequences of this democratic dysfunction are all around us, presided over by an unrepresentative political class in whom the public have lost trust.

Let’s make the 2024 election the last under our broken voting system. It’s time for proportional representation so that everyone – no matter where they live or which party they support – has a vote that counts.

Sincerely,

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

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