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12th May 2005
 The Stroud District Green
Party at their meeting on Wednesday 11th May agreed to launch a
campaign calling on electoral reform. They have been urging everyone to
sign the 'Make My Votes Count' online national petition, supported by the Green party,
Liberal Democrats, the Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform and others. the petition has now closed but further action is still possible at:
On the same evening at a packed meeting at Westminster, voting
reformers from all parties, including the musician Billy Bragg,
launched their protest campaign called "Create a Storm for Reform".
Labour won their 'significant' 67 seat majority with only 21% of
the total electorate; a record low for a winning party. They gained 159
more seats than the Tories who only polled 3% less than them.
John Marjoram, the Coordinator of the Stroud District Green Party
said: "This is not democracy,the result has now awarded an immense power to a Labour Government which only enjoyed the support of
scarcely one in three of those voting and a little over one in five of
the total electorate. We will be launching a campaign in Stroud seeking
cross-party support for reform."
John Marjoram, who is also a District councillor and deputy Mayor,
said: "Proportional representation will completely reinvigorate the
dynamics of politics in this Country. People will be able to vote for
what they really believe in rather than having to vote to keep the
other side out. It is estimated that 20% of the electorate voted
tactically in this election."
Different forms of PR exist. Greens support an Additional Member
System, which is considered one of the more fair systems. It allows
people one vote for their constituency MP, and one vote for the party
that they really believe in. It is successfully used in German and
Scottish parliament and London Assembly elections - giving each voter a
constituency vote and a "top-up" vote. 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.
John Marjoram added: "Tony Blair is reluctant to keep to his
promise in the 1997 and 2001 elections to give us a referendum on PR
(i). But pressure is building on him to modernise the voting system.
Almost 100 Labour MPs, including several cabinet ministers, support
electoral reform."
See: Gloucestershire should be included in review of voting system
See: New research showing how little power voting has in some areas (Oct. 2005)
Notes
(i) Senior Labour MPs who back reform warned that Downing Street
was set against it. Denis MacShane, the former minister for Europe,
said: "I am happy to look at other systems and am not against electoral
reform. By all means look at it. I just don't think it will go
anywhere." Several cabinet ministers, including Ruth Kelly, Peter Hain
and Patricia Hewitt, have indicated they are in favour of a fresh look
at the voting system. They are backed by ministers including Bill
Rammell, the Higher Education minister, Gareth Thomas, the
International Development minister, and by senior backbenchers
including Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary, and John Denham,
chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee. Allies of the
Chancellor, including the former work and pensions secretary Andrew
Smith, have also indicated their interest in voting reform. The Labour
Campaign for Electoral Reform lists almost 100 MPs who have voiced
their support for reform.
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