• home • about • twitter • archives • subscribe • email •

That’s how long it takes the Leader of the Opposition to dismiss electoral reform out of hand:

But it’s also why a Conservative government will not consider introducing proportional representation, as many participants in A New Politics have demanded. The principle underlying all the political reforms a Conservative government would make is the progressive principle of redistributing power and control from the powerful to the powerless. PR would actually move us in the opposite direction, which is why I’m so surprised it’s still on the wish-list of progressive reformers. Proportional representation takes power away from the man and woman in the street and hands it to the political elites. Instead of voters choosing their government on the basis of the manifestos put before them in an election, party managers would choose a government on the basis of secret backroom deals. How is that going to deliver transparency and trust?

It’s a thin argument even for this Blair-lite chancer who’s going to romp to victory at the next election on the sole merit of being perceived as slightly less shit than Gordon Brown (that’s a solid gold ticket right now, I’ll grant you).

First of all, always be suspicious of someone talking disparagingly about ‘political elites’ when they’re a member of the political elite themselves (and they don’t come much more elite than a millionaire leader of a Tory opposition). He’s not exactly putting on his flat cap and asking you out for a pint of brown ale but it’s definitely a ‘me and you against the world, kid’ pitch.

Next, take a look at:

Instead of voters choosing their government on the basis of the manifestos put before them in an election, party managers would choose a government on the basis of secret backroom deals.

This is rubbish, isn’t it? Is he really saying that people don’t vote on the basis of manifestoes under a system of proportional representation? How many people vote on the basis of manifestos full stop? The June 4 European elections are being held under a PR system. The Conservatives are standing in those elections. Here is their European election manifesto. Or did Cameron have it drawn up just to give the office staff something to do? ‘Conservative Euro Election manifesto worthless, says Cameron.’

We don’t have a system of open primaries in the country where non-members of political parties get a say in who stands at an election. Candidates are chosen by a small number of people. So to say that governments aren’t already chosen ‘on the basis of secret backroom deals’ is cobblers. What is candidates being parachuted into safe seats if not secret backroom deals? What is taking money from millionaires with unclear tax arrangements? Or meeting Russian oligarchs on yachts? Or meetings with corporate lobbyists? What are sofa government and kitchen cabinets (not inventions of New Labour but also favoured ways of doing business by Margaret Thatcher) if not secret backroom deals?

The thing is, the argument in favour of proportional representation is a moral one. Living in Hove, a super-marginal constituency where the sitting MP has a majority of just 420, my vote is regarded as far more important than that of someone living in a safe seat. General Election victories swing on the votes of just a few thousand votes. That’s not democratic. That’s not listening to the will of the people. It’s listening to the will of some people. You could argue that at every election, under a first past the post system, a computer could decide which voters need bother turning out.

What Cameron is saying here is, ‘Welcome to my lovely big club. You majority of dull, predictable people can go sit over there and amuse yourselves while I go behind this velvet rope and drink champagne with this much smaller group of VIPs (who I’m going to go back to ignoring after the party’s finished)’. It puts him shoulder to shoulder with the likes of intellectual heavyweight Hazel Blears. That’s a political elite you really don’t want to be a member of, surely?

(The real reason Cameron doesn’t want proportional representation is because he thinks the Tories will come off worst under the system. The balance between power and principles is a fine one but you always know which way the scales will tilt in the end.)