Tim Worstall

Lords Reform

Of course most of me is cheering that Jack Straw’s plans to force a decision on Lords reform has failed. Insisting that a decision must be taken by AV, simply to insist that a decision must be taken to reform, goes against my most basic outlook on life: there’s nothing so bad that politicians can’t make it worse.

However, there is a sneaking little bit of sadness there as well. The proposal would almost certainly have seen elections by party lists on the same regions as the EU Parliament ones. That would almost certainly have lead to a few UKIP style people entering the new house. For example, who wouldn’t want the DK as one of our legislators?

In

3 responses

  1. sanbikinoriaon Avatar
    sanbikinoriaon

    Good to see Straw getting humiliated for all the right reasons.

    Reply
  2. Nigel Sedgwick Avatar
    Nigel Sedgwick

    It is interesting to see who supports the reasonably good desire for a better electoral system (first-past-the-post) being hijacked (through party lists and the so-called proportional representation) for the benefit of established p[olitical parties.
    Now, if “independent” candidates were all lumped together into one “pseudo-party” and allocated seats on that basis, I might find it in my heart to take a more favourable view.
    Pending such an outcome, and also better overall, how about the real Single Transferable Vote. This obtains much faired electoral representation, overall and within each constituancy without the possibility of hijacking by political parties, especially those larger parties that benefit most under the first-past-the-post system.
    I wonder why it does not catch on?
    [Note aside: And concerning STV for the mooted House of Lords reorganisation, surely if there was a category “None of These, so the Status Quo”, which is also made the implied vote when all actually selected options are exhausted, then there would be no problem. If, and as as soon as vote transfers make that the choice of over 50% of the voters, there is a decision. And of course, if STV were used in elections to Parliament, the same should apply.]
    Best regards

    Reply
  3. Tristan Mills Avatar
    Tristan Mills

    I don’t see why they couldn’t have had some sort of AV for choosing the proposal to go forward to a straight Aye/Nay vote on reform using that.

    Reply

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