Events of past few weeks show we need proportional representation - Andy Brown

Yet recent events have proved the opposite. It is never good for any political party either locally or nationally to be in power too securely and to think that it can push through policies regardless of whether they can stand up to scrutiny. Our system of concentrating power in the hands of one party has left most of the public watching powerlessly from the side lines during a period of exceptionally damaging chaos. Now a small number of MPs from one political party have decided to change who rules the country without bothering to consult the electorate.

The great myth of the 2019 election campaign is that people voted to give Boris Johnson a massive majority. If you look at the actual figures a little over 47 per cent of the voters who turned out cast a vote in favour of a party from the right of centre. That is what the total share of the vote was for the Conservatives, Reform UK, UKIP, and the Unionists. Just short of 53 per cent of voters opted for a candidate from the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens, SNP, Plaid or the SDLP. Yet the Conservatives got 364 seats and an utterly secure majority for any policy that they wished to push through

Campaigning on the streets during that election I heard one thing again and again from voters. It was “I don’t trust either of them” and for many people the election was not a popularity contest in which they strongly endorsed a course of action. It was a case of which leader they worried about least. Instead of seeking to address that lack of trust and trying to govern reasonably on behalf of one nation the Conservatives have all too often ignored the centre ground and ruled as if they had a mandate to do whatever they liked.

In a country with a more proportionate system of representation it would have been easy for Conservative MPs who developed doubts about the things were going to insist on some restraint. If they were ignored they would have been able to jump ship and form new alliances.

That isn’t the way things have gone. Instead of responsible politicians holding discussions about which policies would be best for the country we have had constant battles to seize control of that huge majority. Ministers have been changing office so quickly that few can remember their names and no one can be sure of what the policy will be by the end of next week.

We have seen the spectacle of a British Prime Minister being forced out of office because he couldn’t be relied upon to tell the truth or follow the rules that he set for others. Then we have seen Liz Truss handpick a government of none of the talents with the sole aim of ensuring that her entire Cabinet would be true to her pet project of a dash for growth on the back of unfunded tax cuts. Only to discover that these supposed loyalists were very ready to stab her in the back.

Not surprisingly that resulted in opinion polls showing over 50 per cent of voters expressing a preference for a Labour government and another 25 per cent or so of voters wanting one of the other left of centre parties whilst only a little over 20 per cent wanted the Conservatives to carry on. Voting figures even remotely resembling those polls would produce a majority for Labour that would be even more thumping than the Conservatives achieved last time round. Some consideration of the implications of that might therefore be wise.

It hasn’t proved healthy to have the Conservatives winning 364 seats and Labour winning only 203. What will the country be like if the situation is more than reversed? Will that provide an equal dose of over confidence? Will we see a similar tendency to ignore nuance and push home pet ideas regardless of the consequences?

Big parties need challenge and their ideas need testing. Smaller parties often put forward fresher and more relevant policies. Those smaller parties also have to learn to work with others if they want to get any of their good ideas implemented. We need a system that gives those parties the representation their vote share deserves if we are to avoid a swing from an excessive majority for one of our big two parties straight into an over secure majority for the other.

In the last election the Green Party got 864,743 votes and one MP. The Liberal Democrats got 3,675,342 and only 11 seats. It would be healthier for our democracy and more likely to promote responsible co-operative national politics if we fixed that.

It is time to see whether a system of more proportional representation would provide us with greater stability, more grown up politics and fewer experiments with daft ideas. Because the current system is clearly failing to deliver good governance and the answer to our problems is unlikely to be to replace the dominance of one large political party with the dominance of another.

Andy Brown is a Craven District Councillor.