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Charlie Falconer (Right) – Unelected and Trying to Keep Our Elections Biassed
Their Lordships have been enduring all night sittings as the government attempts to get its Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill through in time for the referendum on AV to be held on the same day as the local elections in May.
The Bill includes two measures – as well as the referendum, it includes a measure to mandate that constituencies should all be the same size within 5 percent.
Labour agrees with the idea of the referendum on AV, and has argued that the government should separate the two measures, so that the AV referendum can be passed quickly, and the correction of the electoral system can be debated at leisure.
Labour’s position on this is completely outrageous. The last election was fought under boundaries that meant Conservative constituencies were on average much larger than Labour ones. That is why the Tories won far more votes than Labour, but still ended up with only a few more seats.
You can argue for ever the merits or otherwise of Proportional Representation versus First Past the Post, or any other electoral system like AV. But the fact is that the fairness of First Past the Post absolutely depends on constituencies being roughly the same size. At the last election, the system was rigged in Labour’s favour.
Amazingly, Labour have actually accused the Tories of trying to gerrymander the system to help Tory chances! Yes, Labour actually believe that a system that is not skewed in their favour is biassed.
What a shabby party Labour have become. Still wheeler-dealing to get themselves into power, without any thought whatever for the wishes of the electorate. Appropriately, their efforts in the Lords are being led by Lord Falconer – a personal friend of Tony Blair who played a key role in Blair’s governments despite never having been elected.
