Why it’s time for Labour to back proportional representation

35 comments
  1. Proportional representation is long overdue, and could be the spur for more policy-driven politics. It’s also more fair, which just appeals to my British sensibilities.

  2. A system like STV would mean fairer, more representative politics.

    It’s long overdue, and Labour’s position on electoral reform is a stain on the party.

  3. If it doesn’t directly benefit Labour, they won’t back it – why would any political party back a voting system that disadvantages them?

    So I don’t think we’ll be seeing PR anytime soon

  4. Proportional representation is democracy in its purest form. One man one vote and it counts. This fptp nonsense doesn’t make sense at all.

  5. Labour needs to keep their mouths shut and stick to platitudes. That’s how Blair and Cameron and Boris won. Doing the opposite is how Corbyn lost. Sticking to this has Starmer 10 points ahead in the polls (likely more by now).

    Then once they’ve won, they can actually bring in PR (and 10,000 other improvements).

    The desperate need to blurt things out is the left’s biggest Achilles Heel.

  6. I feel like with labour in a “strong” position (Because Tories are in a weak position) they will not want to go with PR like they did during Blair’s time… yet in 5-10 years time when Tories might have recovered it might be too late and Tories obviously won’t go for PR.

    People who have a labour MP just need to just constantly bring it up to their MP.

  7. PR is okay if you are electing a new leader i.e. Tories, but apparently is really bad for us public.

    It’s almost like they prefer the shittiness of FPTP.

  8. The main problem with proportional representation is whoever is in government will never want to implement it because they got where they are with FPTP.

    If Tories or Labour win an outright majority at next election then there’s no chance it’ll happen. Only way it’ll happen is if Labour win the GE but fail to get an overall majority and go into coalition with the lib dems.

  9. hopefully the next election has this cause right now its basically made for tories to wind no matter how many people vote

  10. Personally I would back proportional representation as my vote has only counted twice in my lifetime.

    However we all know neither Labour nor the Conservatives will ever back it as they both benefit from FPTP. You can argue the Conservatives benefit more – but even still. If Labour are being challenged by 4 or 5 different left wing parties their vote will be torn to shreds. Whereas now people tactically vote for them over their actual preferences like the Liberal Democrats or the Green Party. They can both get away with being inadequate for large periods of time in opposition, safe in the knowledge one day they will end up back in Government. Under PR they could both end like the traditional parties did in France with Le Pen/Macron.

    For Labour it is far better to get into power and re draw the boundaries to suit them like both the Conservatives and Labour do everytime they get into power after a long time in opposition.

    Doesn’t make a difference to Burnham, Mayor of Manchester except its a vote winning suggestion amongst his voters, which is why he supports it.

  11. I lived in a country with PR and a big problem was that the people that made it to the lists were party yes-men who solely got there via having the right connections. They received very little scrutiny from the public or press, who only focused on the names at the top of the list. There was also no constituent-representative relationship to speak of, which is big in UK culture.

    I think RCV is a better fit for UK politics, and would help both Labour and LibDems

  12. Labour: dangerously close to finally getting back into power and doing some good for this country.

    Left wing media: Lets sabotage that, we need to start talking about how everyone who disagrees with us is evil, we need proportional representation and universal basic income

    Why do they do this?

  13. Oof they need to gain votes to win elections, not daft loony racist policies that a vast majority of people have no interest in. Best person for the job, content of their character rather than colour of their skin I thought, but then again I’m not a racist. They’ll need to get a lot of men to replace female teachers also, and get more women sweeping streets and cleaning sewers too, which I can’t imagine being easy, tough to force people to do jobs they don’t want to do since we ended slavery.

  14. I have never voted for Labour in my life but I will vote for whoever puts PR on the table

  15. You’re fooling yourself if you think this is ever going to happen. None of the two main parties have anything to gain from proportional representation.

  16. The reason the UK keeps getting right-wing governments is because of media misrepresentation. Such media misrepresentation will still occur if PR were to be introduced.

    My belief is that PR will be worse than FPTP because it will be easier for smaller parties to massively influence UK politics.

    I mean, be careful what you wish for…

  17. The UK should really change the system. Other democracies such as France or Germany have a more fair representation. The UK’s “winner-takes-all” is unfair to the voters.

  18. Maybe if the left wing parties didn’t act like some ridiculous People’s Front of Judea Monty Python sketch and sat on a single ticket. The Corbynites hate the Blairites, the Blairites hate the Corbynites, the Remainers hate the Leavers, and everyone seems to hate Keith.

    The Tories, unbelievably, seem to be the only ones with any pragmatism, how else would people like Tugendhat and Rees-Mogg sit in the same party?

    Right wing parties got at most ~47% of the vote at the last election and still pissed it because the left have to have their specific brand of politics front and centre, and anything else is subterfuge.

    Now they want to change the entire voting system so that they can win but still can continue to avoid being in the same party as each other. You need to actually link up first to achieve this or enjoy another 7 years of the Tories.

  19. I guess they could spin it as being OK where AV wasn’t because the publics interaction would be identical rather than involve something so confusing as writing a few numbers?

  20. I watched Kier’s speach today, and he brought up that he wanted to enact real change to benifit the country, just like the post-war labour government who established the NHS.

    Electoral reform could be that everlasting change. A genuine way to ensure our democracies are more representative.

  21. Proportional representation is the biggest threat to the righties’ grip on power. If it ever became popular and what the country leaned towards, all the newspapers and media outlets would be spewing lies and propaganda about it at twice the rate.

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