Trumpeter 4 Europe

There is going to be an astonishing result in the UK general election on May 6th. The voters will win.

Why will there be this paradoxical win? Because there will be a surge in the Lib-Dem vote to well above previous levels. And the Lib-Dems are the only one of the three main political parties who depend entirely on voters for their success. The Tories have

media barons, multi-millionaires (UK domiciled and not) as well a rabidly right-wing band of newspapers to praise them and sling muddy headlines at their opponents. Labour does not have such powerful vested interests to draw upon for finance, power and

influence; their main supports are the trade unions. Lib-Dems must rely upon themselves. They have no mighty vested interests to prop them up and gain them political successes. They only have their own activists and the voters. A success for them in this

election will be a gain for voter power over the power of multi-millionaires, press barons, trade unions, and the British class system generally. The televised debates between the three party leaders and between three potential chancellors have by-

passed the usual vested interests and given voters a sight of democracy in the raw. They have come as revelation to most UK voters who have had a chance to see for themselves the qualities of potential Prime Ministers and potential Chancellors. They

can see that there are three potential governments on offer not just two. That is an enormous change in public perceptions. The voters have gained in choices. Could voters get yet more power over vested interests and the two traditional wielders of

parliamentary power, the Conservative and Labour parties? They could if the Lib-Dem insistence on proportional representation becoming the means of electing MPs and councillors is made law. Then every vote cast would have equal weight. So if a party got

30% of votes it would get about 30% of MPs, which is simple, direct and fair. It would be impossible for the party getting the smallest percent of votes to get the largest number of MPs such as is bizarrely possible at present. Proportional representation

is not a new, experimental and dangerous electoral system. There is a whole nearby continent, called Europe, containing dozens of countries that successfully use PR voting. And it is worth noticing something that did not happen. After many European

countries were freed after the collapse of the Soviet system in 1990’s did they rush to construct democracies on the British model or did they rush to have written constitutions and PR? They chose the latter. The new democracies chose to imitate the well-

tested European norm in their political system. They all chose to join many other democracies in living with the terrible dangers of what is pejoratively called by our vituperative press “a hung parliament”. What calamities that can bring. Denmark, one of the

most prosperous and stable countries in Europe has had “hung parliaments” for over a century. Germany has had “hung parliaments” since the Federal Republic was set up over 60 years ago. Even respectable Canada has lived with years of “hung

parliaments” – shock, horror! Of course, what is pejoratively called “a hung parliament” in the British political lexicon is called coalition government in Europe and the rest of the world. Both PR voting and its concomitant of coalition government are normal

features of modern political life in most stable, prosperous countries in Europe and elsewhere in the world. The British first past the post electoral system is an archaic anomaly; part of what is in effect our museum politics. Nick Clegg and the Lib-Dems are

part of a drive not only to give democracy to more UK voters but also to modernise a moribund political system. Tories and Labour may want to defend the bizarre museum exhibit that is our electoral system so that they can maintain their ability to gain absolute

legislative and executive power through it. But its day is done. Voter power will continue to grow. That is the really important, long-term consequence of the surge in electoral support for Nick Clegg and the Lib-Dems. 30.4.2010
Kevin Hannon  of The Midlands European Movement