Gordon Brown announces support to change the electoral system – who’d have thought it! Long regarded as one of the strongest opponents of electoral reform in the Cabinet, this U-turn must be seen in the context of historically low levels of trust in politicians and our democratic institutions. It is politically a clever(ish) move. He can claim to have finally broken the taboo over reform of the electoral system and say that he wants no MP to be returned to Westminster without the positive endorsement of a majority of voters – and also that he is prepared to listen to the arguments and move his own position if necessary. None of this should be easily dismissed.
However, if the purpose of this announcement is to help rebuild trust between the people and their elected representatives he could not have chosen a worse way of doing it. Without troubling the public for their views he has hand-picked a voting system which will not really offer more choice to voters or open up the political system. There has been no meaningful public debate – instead Brown continues with the same old ‘we know best attitude’ which the public no longer accepts.
It is true that the issue of voting reform has been put to many commissions and working parties over the years – but these have largely been closed processes and done little to engage the wider public in a discussion about our democratic institutions and what we, the people, want from our political system.
The prime minister’s speech today has much in it to be applauded. Ideas like a fully elected second chamber, strengthening local government, and giving people a right to recall MPs are admirable – and few reformers like me would argue against them. In fact they are all ideas which were put to the Power2010 deliberative poll and can now be voted on at www.power2010.org.uk/vote
The problem is that we have heard much of this from Brown before. When he first became prime minister, then in his response to the expenses scandal, and again now as a general election nears. The question on everyone’s lips must be ‘does he mean it this time?’