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Hounslow Liberal Democrats |
Proportional Representation and the Euro-sceptics - Strange Bedfellows
June 4, 2004 12:00 AM
Well, the long awaited elections that will either sound the death knell for Tony Blair or secure his continuance as Prime Minister are here. By Monday we should know whether he is likely to be leading Labour into the next election. Although the result may signal short-term job security for Tony as Prime Minister, one thing is now well established as a certainty - Proportional Representation, PR, is here to stay. All of the arguments against PR have now been blown away. PR ensures that the number of politicians elected is proportional to the number of votes they receive.
The Euro-sceptics, and there are many of them standing in this election, who call loudly for Britain to leave the European Community have, strangely enough, the European Parliament and PR voting to thank for giving them a voice.
Liberal Democrats have long advocated PR as a more representative electoral system. Our attempts to introduce PR in this country have been rejected by both Labour and Conservative governments. However, the European Parliament has compelled the UK Government to hold the European elections under the PR system. The number and diverse nature of the candidates now standing for election is the judge of the popularity of this system with the public.
As Liberal Democrats, we do not always find the message that some of these candidates preach, palatable; however, our view is that we should give the public a chance to reject the more outrageous candidates, thus silencing them, something that politicians and legislation could never have achieved.
Such is the popularity of PR that we will, in future, see an ever-increasing variety of candidates at elections. This will ensure that politicians take more note of its citizens' views and concerns and if we can now extend this voting system to all other elections in this country, we would see a return of the public's interest in the ballot box.
And who would we have to thank for this reform? The European Parliament!
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