New Year Message

A very happy New Year and successful campaigning to all readers.

In over forty years of campaigning for electoral reform, I have never felt so optimistic that reform will come, although we shall have to work hard to ensure the new system is STV in multi-member constituencies.

Although very unsatisfactory, the regional list system used for European Parliament elections and AMS for the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh and London Assemblies have proved that First Past The Post is not the only system or the natural one. In short, the toothpaste is out of the tube. (See Food for Thought on the left.) More important, STV is used for most elections in Northern Ireland and now for Scottish local elections. Furthermore, last month's recommendation (reported in STV News 07/16) by the Councillors' Commission to allow local authorities to use STV for local elections is very encouraging. It increases the pressure, not just for reform generally but also for STV in particular.
STV is becoming the leading challenger to First Past The Post and all electoral reformers should unite behind it.

There has also been a proliferation recently of websites, some specifically seeking electoral reform and others criticizing various aspects of the present political system and suggesting diverse solutions, but falling short at present of calling for electoral reform. Although we must not imagine that all this electronic activity will lead on its own to reform, it is encouraging that more and more people seem to realize that all is not well. Our task is to help more people realize it and explain how STV can help.

Although the Government and the Conservatives still deny the need for electoral reform, they are beginning to use the language of reform; they recognize some of the problems and desperately seek any solution except electoral reform. They worry about low turnouts at elections, they talk about public disillusion with politics and promise power to the people. They disapprove of unaccountable local Councils charging high rates of Council Tax and they say they would like more women in Parliament. Some also say they would like backbench MPs to be more independent of the party leaderships and for the Government to be more accountable to Parliament. Although we have to be careful not to overstate the case, STV could at least mitigate all these, and other, problems and we have to take every opportunity to say this.

Do please visit www.stvAction.org.uk throughout the year to obtain campaigning ideas and contribute your own. If you have not already registered as a Supporter, will you please do so? There is no financial commitment and it would add to STV Action's moral authority. Similarly, if you are not a member of the Electoral Reform Society, you can join via its website, www.electoral-reform.org.uk.