English local councils

Extract from this month's report from the Councillors' Commission:

"... since there is a view that STV could assist with broadening the diversity of councillors, local authorities wishing to do so, following a consultation and majority vote, should be able to pilot STV for a minimum of two terms."

For the full report, please see http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/pdf/583990

All readers will no doubt welcome this. We should try to publicize the recommendation (No. 21) of the report and urge politicians to implement it. You may care to write to your own MP about it and, if you are a party member, to your party leader.

The next general election
So there is no general election this year despite all the speculation a little while ago, but it will probably be within the next two years - within the lifetime of the Electoral Reform Society's present Council and my forecast is Thursday 11 June 2009 with European and perhaps some local elections on the same day.

The Independent gave electoral reform some excellent publicity immediately after the 2005 general election but did not keep it up and the Government was let off the hook. Although The Independent collected thousands of signatures for a petition, it did not keep their contact details so they could not be followed up.

I believe electoral reform organizations should be planning now for the next election. If you have any ideas, do please let me know.

ERS AGM
Those of you who are members of the Electoral Reform Society may wish to note that its next AGM has been provisionally arranged for Saturday 28 June 2008.

Canada
In a referendum on 10 October, Ontario voters decisively rejected MMP (AMS) for provincial elections in favour of retaining first past the post. The voting was 63.1% - 36.9%.

Lornie Calvert, then Saskatchewan's Premier, announced in October that he would convene a Citizens' Assembly to review the Province's voting system if he was re-elected on 7 November but he lost the election. Perhaps he knew which way the wind was blowing but it was blowing harder than he expected and he was too late to change the system to stay in power. I wonder whether Gordon Brown will make the same mistake.

British Columbia will have another referendum on 12 May 2009 to choose between STV and the existing first past the post system. In the Province's previous referendum on 17 May 2005, a convincing 57% supported STV but this was below the artificial threshold of 60% that had been set.

Talking Turkey

While you are eating your Christmas Turkey, consider the fragile democracy of the eponymous country. In the 2002 election there, the party that won a large overall majority of seats won only 34% of the votes. How terrible! Compare that with the UK where the party that won a good overall majority of seats in 2005 needed 35% of the votes. Ahem!

Happy Christmas!