Constitutional review

I wrote to the Ministry of Justice on 25 September:

"Mr Wills [Minister of State for Justice] said in Radio 4's You and Yours on 18 September that he was starting a national debate on this subject and said it was to be a genuine consultation, so I was disappointed at being unable today to find anything about the subject on your website. Would you please tell me where to find it?"

If I receive an answer, I'll tell STV News readers who, I am sure, will want to join in the debate.

If any reader already knows the answer, please tell me so I can pass it on. Alternatively, the Ministry's e-mail address is general.queries@justice.gsi.gov.uk in case you would like to make your own enquiries.

Gerrymander Wheel

We electoral reformers know what gerrymandering is and how even impartial drawing of constituency boundaries can affect the results of First Past The Post (FPTP) elections. John and Helen Cross have created a gerrymander wheel on http://www.stvaction.org.uk/?q=node/207 which illustrates this graphically. It is well worth a visit and you can tell your less well informed friends about it. It is difficult to see how any intelligent and honest person could support FPTP after seeing the gerrymander wheel.

Helen has also created a PowerPoint version of the wheel, with a link from the site mentioned above, which will be invaluable to those of you who give talks on electoral reform.

As I have suggested before, do please consider registering as a supporter while you are visiting STV Action, if you have not already done so. There is no cost and all you have to do is declare your support for STV. In fact, registering is as easy as 1, 2, 3!

CAER

Conservative Action for Electoral Reform's website http://www.conservativeelectoralreform.org/ is looking good now. Well done, Jan Small, who runs it. Although it will be of special interest to Conservative supporters, others will probably also find it worth visiting. In particular, the site corrects the popular Tory myth that all would be well for the party if only constituencies had electorates of equal size. The gerrymander wheel is, of course, also relevant to destroying this myth.

Citizens' Convention

The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has pledged to "build a shared national consensus for a programme of constitutional reform” and the opposition parties have also recently called for constitutional reform. The Citizens’ Convention Bill seeks to turn this broad consensus into positive action, by committing the Government to setting up a Citizens’ Convention, involving people from across the UK and from all sections of society, and to co-operating with the Convention in implementing its recommendations.

The Bill would commit the Government to establishing a Citizens’ Convention within twelve months of the Bill becoming law, which would involve people in discussing how to improve the way the UK is governed. The Government would then be required to co-operate with the Convention in deciding on the implementation of those recommendations.

I have strongly supported the concept of citizens' conventions since British Columbia's Citizens' Assembly of 2004 regarding electoral reform. To show your support for the Bill or to write asking your MP to sign Early Day Motion 1763 “Citizens’ Convention Bill”. please visit http://www.unlockdemocracy.org.uk/?page_id=964

Voting Matters

Voting matters has relaunched its website at http://www.votingmatters.org.uk/ and you may well find items of interest to you there. Although some material is for those who are mathematically minded or very knowledgeable about the details of STV, there is something there for most people with any interest in STV.