Electoral Reform: Saving Politicians from Democracy?

With all the dignity of a condemned man calling for an end to the death penalty, Gordon Brown is calling for a referendum on electoral reform.

I remain unconvinced about the case for electoral reform. Our current system is far from perfect, but it does have the wonderful attribute of being simple enough even for the dumbest voter to understand. Contrary to the way it is being promoted, AV isn’t like voting in The X Factor.

Personally, if electoral reform has to happen, then I would prefer a system that produces coalition governments, if only because – as a Libertarian – I would like government to be hobbled as much as possible. But electoral reform is hardly the most pressing concern facing this country.

And when you have a Prime Minister facing electoral defeat, then do not doubt their intentions when they talk about electoral reform. This isn’t about what doing what is best for the electorate, it is about making things better for the politician. In this case, it is about trying to reduce the amount of time that the Labour party spend in opposition. One party, and one party alone, makes the case for electoral reform consistently, albeit for typically self-serving reasons – the Liberal Democrats. The Labour party don’t care about electoral reform; they care about the Labour party. They didn’t care one jot about electoral reform when the system gave them landslides on a minority of the vote. Now it is going to condemn them to opposition on a minority of the vote, their leader starts bleating about changing the system. The fact that this is so blatantly self-serving condemns electoral reform as a concept to a large extent – it has nothing to do with democracy, but rather saving failing politicians from democracy.