Our Newspapers ought to do this!

[Melissa G]

Electoral reform: make your voice heard
19 May 2005


Today we are asking you, our readers, to sign up to The Independent's Campaign for Democracy, which aims to persuade the Government to reform our unfair electoral system. The response to this campaign, launched after this month's general election, has been extraordinarily positive. We have been inundated with letters of support. And as our survey this week demonstrated, public opinion in Britain is now broadly in favour of some form of proportional representation being introduced into the Westminster elections. It emerged that 62 per cent of the British public disagree with Downing Street's recent assertion that there is no appetite for reform of the current system.

Now we are giving you the chance to make your case directly to the Government. If you are in favour of making the composition of the House of Commons more representative of the way the country casts its votes, fill out the form below and send it to us. We will then collate the list of names and deliver it to Downing Street - together with the hundreds of letters received calling for reform.

Those who would defend the status quo have had ample opportunity to make their case over the past two weeks - and indeed have done so. But our campaign has demonstrated that the arguments against proportional representation are tenuous at best. There is simply no reason why a PR system would inevitably result in an unstable coalition government, as the experience of many continental European nations attests. The single transferable vote system functions perfectly well in Ireland. Austria has the alternative vote.

snip
And the truth is that our present system is emphatically not working. The pitiful turnout in all constituencies two weeks ago - except where there was a real chance of unseating a candidate - shows that the health of our democracy is at a lower ebb than it has been for some considerable time. The fact that the Labour Party was able to claim a majority with just 36 per cent of the popular vote, and 22 per cent of the electorate, ought to serve as a warning that our democracy cannot continue to stagger on unreformed.

http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/story.jsp?story=639561

[evlbstrd]

1. You mean that thing they're supposed to anyway?

What's it called again? Gerbilism?