On the edition of BBC Radio’s Any Questions broadcast immediately following the UK election on July 4th, I was shocked to hear Charlie Falconer – Lord Falconer, who I have always thought of as something of a wise owl – defend the UK’s First Past the Post electoral system. He argued that it preserved an essential constituency link with each MP and that it prevents small parties gaining an influence disproportionate to their presence in Parliament.

As previously discussed on this blog, these comments indeed pinpoint failings of some systems of PR, but there are very well known devices for avoiding such systemic defects, most obviously insisting on a threshold vote to gain any seats in the Parliament at all.

For the UK Parliament, one could be more radical. How about a system which would award seats in Parliament to just 5 parties, those gaining most votes across the nation? This could be done by having a second round in the election with just those 5 parties represented on the ballot paper.

Equally, under the Single Transferable Vote system [Note to Charlie Falconer – That’s a constituency based system,] this could be achieved in a single election, though the counting of the vote would be fiendishly complicated. Such a system would allow a vote for a nationalist candidate, or for the Monster Raving Loony Party or some single issue candidate, whilst also offering the opportunity to vote for one of the 5 parties with genuine ambition to participate in the government of the UK. The result would be a more straight talking politics focused on explaining and arguing for every vote rather than an obsession with winning a few critical seats and the sterile, gaff averse, tetchy discourse, which results. Yes, parties we don’t like – or certainly that I don’t like – would win seats, but if you think that is not part of healthy democratic politics then you should take a listen to the most recent edition of the Leading podcast, a very refreshing interview with former Danish Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, in which she talks about the challenges of making pragmatic compromise in a parliament with 8 different Parties. Get with the programme, Charlie Falconer.

References

Denmark’s former PM on the power of centrist politics, fighting misogyny and joining the Kinnock empire (Helle Thorning-Schmidt) https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/denmarks-former-pm-on-the-power-of-centrist/id1665265193?i=1000661430340

BBC Radio 4, Any Questions with Lord Falconer, Professor Matt Goodwin, Layla Moran MP, Polly Toynbee, Lord Willetts, first broadcast, Friday 5th July. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0020pjc

Zoe Williams – Making Britain’s voting system fairer won’t enable parties like Reform – it’s the only way to challenge them https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/10/britain-voting-system-proportional-representation-reform-challenge?

UK Election Results, BBC [from where the images in this post are also derived.] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/results

Sunlit uplands: a vision for the renewal of electoral and party politics – A more lengthy discussion of electoral systems, considering strengths, defects and opportunities. Sunlit uplands: a vision for the renewal of electoral and party politics