Things are pretty bad for Britain, aren’t they? The post-crash Coalition con, the austerity years, disastrous Brexit, Covid, the erosion of democracy since Johnson, Ukraine, inflation. Yet the incumbent Tories still cling to power they only use to satisfy their own greed. The people? Let them eat cake. Hang on though: did that idea not lead to revolution?
Friends may joke in private about barricades and tumbrils but good idea though revolutions may sound, they rarely are. Deposing a hateful and useless government is one thing but imposing something agreeable in its place by force has proven problematic throughout history. Violence tends to be involved both in deposing incumbents and between potential replacements, and violence invites further violence by way of reaction, retribution or revenge and is unacceptable to most as a form of politics.
PR ensures everyone has a voice
In today’s UK it is democrats who seek change. Conservative administrations of recent years have been divisive and self-serving: unlimited lucre for the wealthy and entitled and meagre scraps for the masses. They will do nothing to restore the public services on which so many rely, or to reduce the inequalities that so divide our society. We Brits rarely emulate our French neighbours by taking to the streets. If that route is both unacceptable and unlikely, what else can be done? There must be an alternative, for what we have today is ruining the country.
There is one way in which emulating our continental cousins makes sense and offers an alternative: electoral reform. The UK is the only country in Europe other than Belarus with First Past The Post (FPTP) elections; why would we want to be like that puppet dictatorship? All our more civilised friends employ electoral systems that use some form of Proportional Representation (PR) to ensure that all significant shades of opinion have a place in government. How extraordinary that sounds here, but how refreshing.
One justifiable cause of discontent among the people of any country is lack of voice; having nobody who can or will air their concerns where decisions are made. How many in this country live in places where neither councillor nor MP shares their values or knows anything of the lives of their constituents? How many have never voted for the person who nominally speaks for their interests? With a Conservative Party currently fixated on its own narrow agenda and a house of lawmakers put in place by privilege and influence, how can this not be the case? With FPTP it will continue whoever is elected to govern.
A Labour victory is the only path to reform
It must be plain that with the current system only Labour, helped by others, can form an alternative government when the opportunity arises, and that only by the election of a Labour government can any change occur. But if Labour is elected with the active support of other parties, these will need a voice. Labour’s priorities could and should include consideration of constitutional reform so that this binary and unfair politics is replaced for good. Change is always resisted but never has the need been greater, and models of how it can be achieved and operated successfully are just across the water.
A Labour victory in a General Election is a must, even for Lib Dems, Greens and other progressives. No other party can remotely be seen as forming or leading the next government but the chances of ridding us of the adhesive Tories will be all the greater if in every constituency the greatest chance of victory for a non-Tory is taken. So it is a question not of Labour alone, but of Labour where it can win, others where they can.
Once elected, the parties can and must together adopt a fair voting system for the future. Only then can universal representation, an elected second chamber rid of cronies and a properly regulated executive, win back the confidence of the people such that they no longer even think of violence and do not have to take to the streets. Cooperation before and after such a victory would in fact constitute a real revolution unlike most before – one that is peaceful, effective, lasting and inclusive.
