If We Get One Thing from the General Election – It Must be a Proportional Voting System

British party politics has changed massively over the last 50 or 60 years. In the 1951 general election, the Tories and Labour scooped up 97% of the votes cast (on a record high turn out of 84%). Looking at the opinion polling for the 2015 general election, the Tories and Labour are likely to command only around two thirds of the votes cast, on a probable turn out of around only 65%.

Yet on this prediction the Tories and Labour will likely win more than 85% of the seats in Parliament. Clearly, this is a far from a democratic state of affairs which surely is a factor in the lower turn out at elections these days. What is the point of voting for a party that has no chance of winning in most constituencies in the country?

So from a fairness perspective and if we are serious about encouraging an increase in participation in elections, it is a no brainer that we should change to a fairer system which gives all votes some meaningful value.

But there are powerful vested interests who will oppose any changes to a system that delivers power to the effective duopoly of either Labour or the Tories. One argument that is usually trotted out in defence of the status quo is that the First Past The Post (FPTP) system delivers a clear winner and therefore stable government. Well, the last election in 2010 under FPTP didn’t deliver a clear winner and 2015 looks even less likely to provide an overall majority to one of the duopoly, so this argument doesn’t hold much water anymore.

We will certainly be told that as recently as 2011 the electorate was given the opportunity of changing the voting system in a referendum and decisively rejected the idea.  Of course, the Alternative Vote system that we were offered was not a proportional one, and in my view was no better than FPTF. I think the public also associated endorsing AV as a reward for the Lib Dems, and so were reluctant to give a prize to the party of betrayal, after propping up a minority Tory government.

The more votes that the smaller parties get, the greater will be the public pressure for a change to a system that better reflects the voter’s wishes. Although, maybe not all of the smaller parties.

Labour and the Tories obviously benefit from FPTP as they can argue a vote for anyone else lets the other party in and so is not only wasted, but dangerous to boot. I wouldn’t expect much help from either of these parties in moving to a proportional system. There may be some individual MPs though who would see the unfairness of the current arrangement and might support a change.

To be fair to Labour, when in government they did introduce proportional elections to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh and London Assemblies. For the Tories, I remember speaking to the chair of the local Conservative association just after the 2010 council elections, (when the Tories won 15% of the borough vote, but no seats on the council), who said that locally there was sympathy for proportional voting but central office would have none of it.

The Lib Dems are an interesting case here. For many years they have supported a change in the electoral system, but I just wonder after this year’s general election when they may get only 7% of the vote but win 25 to 30 seats. Whereas the Greens, with a similar percentage of the popular vote, would win only two or three seats, at most. Will the Lib Dems want to change the system? This seems unlikely, but you never know.

The SNP likewise. FPTP is better for them because their vote is concentrated (in Scotland) and they would get only about 5% of the national vote, but end up with around 40 seats under FPTP.

Plaid Cymru may be more willing to support a proportional voting system, as they would probably gain more representation. The Northern Ireland parties would either gain nothing from a proportional system or very little, so not much sympathy there I think.

All of which leaves UKIP who may well get twice as many votes as the Lib Dems, but only a fifth of the seats that the Lib Dems look to be on course for. So it would certainly be in UKIP’s interest to support a change.

The preferred system of voting for the Green party is of the ‘additional member’ type. This is the system used for elections to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh and London Assemblies.

Electors would vote on two ballots: one for the party of their first choice and the other for their constituency MP. MPs would be elected from constituencies as at present, but each party's representation would be topped up on a regional basis by additional members to bring its number of seats up to its proportion of votes polled, provided that proportion was above a minimum qualifying level of 3% of votes polled. There would be a requirement that each party's list has to be elected by a system of 'one member one vote' of the party's membership.  

What is undeniable is that the FPTP system is not fit for purpose with the diversity of voter’s allegiances these days, so we must make sure that we seize the opportunity that the May election will no doubt offer.

This could be a once in lifetime chance to change our representative politics, for the common good.