If you were a voter in the eighteenth century – and not many people were – your electoral choice was between two ruling elites, the Whigs and the Tories. First past the post was an efficient way of choosing between them. FPTP concentrated power in the hands of two alternating strong elites and took little interest in the views of the electors or the people, only in the views of the elected. FPTP reflects a class-based social hierarchy and sets into the political structure a dominance of one section of the people over another – namely the commercially wealthy and landowning classes and later the industrialists, over the mass of labouring people. This era is passing slowly into history. Since 1892 with the election of Keir Hardie parliament has opened up to politicians representing the interests of labour. In 1918 the first woman was elected to parliament and in the People Act of 1928 women got the vote on equal terms with men. Since 1997 the Labour party in power has implemented the principle of devolved power and is seeking to strengthen this.
In our civic life for more than a hundred years our country has been moving towards a more inclusive and less top-down attitude to decision-making. Most notably this Labour government through the Freedom of Information Act has given people unprecedented control over the information held by public bodies on the matters that affect them; the rights of the citizen particularly in civic life have been hugely strengthened by the Communities Act; and the Duty to Involve which came into force in April this year will gradually engage many thousands of people in the design of their local services.
You cannot argue that you desire a democracy in which people participate in the decisions that affect them, and still cling to FPTP. That is the politics of the reign of Queen Anne. The mechanism is fundamentally a denial of participation and this was its perceived virtue in the nineteenth century. As Tony Benn said “If voting changed anything, they’d abolish it”. FPTP is the next anti-democratic obstacle to be overcome. The fear of participation of undesirable groups such as the BNP should not hold us back from casting out this anachronism. It is a political reform 100 years overdue.
