Campaign Blog

An ode to the One Party State

Things are heating up ahead of next Tuesday’s vote. And if some of the invective we’ve heard is anything to go by, our opponents are looking pretty desperate.

Given the poverty of their arguments our opponents are often inclined to reach for a man with a moustache when voting reform rears its head. It's altogether easier than making a case for our broken elections.

Reading MP Rob Wilson got things started with a uniquely tasteless blog piece on Friday, comparing voting reform to the work of Robert Mugabe. Still that beats the usual lazy Weimar Germany nonsense we have to contend with.
 
No wonder Rob Wilson’s feeling a little uncomfortable about voting reform, sitting in such a marginal seat like Reading East. But we certainly hope there are no Zimbabwean émigrés resident in Reading who have to put up with monumentally crass references to “ZanuPF” tactics.
 
First-Past-the-Post is nice and uncomplicated. It gives the impression the residents of Reading East are united behind Rob, when 2/3 actually wanted other candidates in the last election.
 
First-Past-the-Post elections have enabled our own governments to act as One Party States, ignoring powerless opposition as they steamroller legislation through the lobbies. Tasteless references to dictators can’t disguise a Member of Parliament unprepared to make a real case to his voters.
 
 “ZaNu Labour” may have seemed a clever phrase to coin, but reveals Rob Wilson’s ignorance about politics at Home and abroad, and his contempt for the voters of Reading East. Wilson can show some grace by indicating his support for a referendum, and letting the people of Reading make the choice themselves.

When Fair’s Unfair

Well we’ve coaxed the government into action, but it’s not over yet.

No sooner had we extracted Brown’s pledge then the fight back commenced from the opposition. The tone was set on Tuesday’s Newsnight, when Tory Chair Eric Pickles said - with what we can only assume was a straight face - "we're for fairness" while defending (although astutely avoiding giving one real positive for) our First-Past-the-Post voting system.

David Cameron put his on spin on things this morning, with an opinion piece in the Telegraph. He said – and we’ve got 40,000 odd people at hand who might want to prove him wrong - "people don’t want a new voting system – they want a new politics."

Well we're not quite sure how you can change politics when most of our votes don't even count.

The funny thing is Dave used many of the same arguments we’ve made. He argues that in his ideal world “every vote weighs the same.” Yes we all could do with the power enjoyed by a few hundred thousand voters in the marginals. But equality on polling day is a distant dream under first-past-the-post, a system that ensures some votes are more equal than others.

His solution is redrawing the political map of Britain, with fewer MPs (and if the critics are right fewer Labour MPs for sure).  Sadly playing about with boundaries can only achieve so much when our votes fail time and again to deliver the goods.

The Tories are facing a three line whip next week to vote down the government’s referendum proposals. We’re working to ensure Dave gets a few gentle reminders beforehand.

We’ve made it to Parliament!

Another big day for the campaign. Today, from the comfort of the Royal Society of Arts, the PM made clear his intention to start legislating for a referendum on electoral reform. The Constitutional Renewal Bill – with our amendment – is winging its way to Parliament.

We’ve won the argument with government. Legislation in this parliament is the only way we can begin the process of rebuilding trust in politics. We have a system that has left the majority of our MPs aloof and unaccountable, and this referendum is a chance to bring them down to earth.

But how we got here is thanks to all you guys. Last week we experienced the closest thing that Yorkshire’s had to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Late on Thursday we held back our fleet of billboard trucks from outside key cabinet blocker Ed Balls seat, as the government pledged a “united front” on reform proposals. You gave us the weapons - your words and your actions got them rattled, and today we see the results.

It’s now with the Conservatives to decide whether this year really is to be a Year for Change. After the expenses crisis David Cameron would be wise to remember that voters will not tolerate a return to business as usual in Westminster.

If any defenders of First-Past-the-Post want to make their case they will make it public and leave the verdict to the voters. It's one thing to talk change, it's quite another to deliver. Our supporters have helped silence a fifth column in government ready to derail our best chance for fair votes. Now the same treatment awaits any other politicians who feel voters don’t have the final say on how their MPs get their jobs.

Politicians of all parties need to know they face real consequences for failing to deliver on the change our politics so desperately requires. We intend to keep politicians to their word, with a little help from 40,000 supporters.

Now it's time for the final push.

http://www.voteforachange.co.uk/pages/get-involved/

Nice one Jack

A couple of days left before we pop up to Normanton to meet Mr Balls. And we thought we’d take this opportunity to thank our supporters – and one supporter in particular – for all the ideas we’ve been getting with in the last week.

Hats off to Jack Hazelgrove from Brighton, whose Don’t be a Block’Ed slogan, reported in yesterday’s Guardian, will be gracing the fair streets of Normanton this Friday.

So we popped by to meet our ad guru – aged 73 - in his home this week.

So we asked: what’s got your goat about Mr Balls and his blocking tactics? “Balls is a product of an old system” said Jack. “A breed of politicians who think they will glide from university to political assistant, to safe constituency to junior office, high office, cabinet, all in the space of a dozen years.”

It’s a response we’ve been hearing from a lot of supporters. Particularly with these Young Turk types suddenly parachuted into safe seats they probably never visited before. In Ed’s case his wife Yvette Cooper is MP for the neighbouring seat – you'll remember the flipping – but whether that makes it better or worse is up to you.

Brighton is a funny seat. Jack’s actually lucky enough to live in one of the few seats that could go either way at the election, and nearly unique in that a Green candidate - MEP Caroline Lucas - is odds on favourite.

“We’ve a classic situation here” Jack told us. “In Brighton you’ve got two parties on the progressive left, and we get this ridiculous competition. Which ever is ahead will say if you vote for other one you’ll only let the Tories in. On the right you’ve got the Tories are saying don’t vote UKIP or you’ll let Labour in.”

“This is all about persuading people not to vote on principal. And it’s just so appalling.

For Jack, as with 40,000 others backing Vote for a Change, a fair vote is about getting real choice.

“If people have a vote then they should feel that their choice matters, and what ever of the system used, their vote will be there and counting. Parties try and persuade us not to vote for what we believe. All on the grounds of voting the 2nd best I will avoid the worst.

“In so called mature democracy this is nothing short of infantile.”

Nicely put Jack. We’ll mention that to Ed this Friday.

Labour’s “Litmus test”

The ink is still drying on our billboards due this Friday, and the headlines continue.

Writing in today's Guardian Polly Toynbee has thrown down the gauntlet to the Labour Party: get your act together on reform, or face the consequences.

"A litmus test awaits the cabinet when it meets tomorrow" she writes.  "Will it push through the amendment to set a referendum day ­beyond the next election for ­introducing the alternative vote?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/25/labour-fight-soul-electoral-reform

"It's a stand-up-and-be-counted moment, a test of character and intent for any would-be leader of the Labour party."

With only days left on the clock we're still hearing the same old noises from inside the Labour Party. There is "disagreement" at cabinet. There is briefing and counter briefing, and a decided lack of action on the promise we've heard so many times in these last months.

Our supporters have worked hard to get this far. Reform is a test of leadership, and we're ready to expose those who've flunked it, and let down the voters. And if that requires a copy of Photoshop, a van, and a few dozen square meters of paper sporting the Schools' Seceratary's face then all's the better. 

Caving in to the Neanderthals

PMQs and it seems Brown is bottling it once again, with reports already doing the rounds – briefed by insiders no doubt – that plans to hold a referendum will be parked in Labour’s manifesto.

We were there in Brighton. And we heard that particular non promise over the big screen.

Today we had expected Brown to commit himself to take action in this parliament – by stating clearly his intent to amend the Constitutional Renewal Bill. This watered down pledge sees the Prime Minister caving in to the Neanderthals in his own party.

After all Labour’s soundings, half-promises and positioning we required a firm government commitment to electoral reform, not another exercise in calculated vagueness.

This appears a victory for Labour’s most conservative backbenchers and another blow to Brown’s leadership. If Brown wants to show he still has any authority over the Parliamentary Labour Party he has to make clear his intention to amend the Constitutional Renewal Bill this week.

All of us at Vote for a Change think it’s high time the PM drew a line under months of dithering and starts the task of restoring credibility to our parliament.

If you agree we need your support:

http://www.voteforachange.co.uk/referendum

Ball’s games

What kind of game are Ed Balls and his allies playing? The Guardian's Allegra Stratton has a few thoughts, and none of them positive. The Schools Secretary's opposition to voting reform (after years of professed support) is filling blogs today as we await a crucial meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party. The New Statesman have warned that "conservative Labour tribalists" are on the march,  and ready and willing to knock back change. 

Surely the Labour Party doesn't want to shoot itself in the foot over electoral reform tonight. But a small group of MPs with deeply reactionary views risk alienating a whole group of voters who expected a big response to last years expenses crisis. 

Labour might feel it’s got a response for a broken economy, but without electoral reform there’s little evidence they’ve got anything serious to say about our broken politics. Perhaps Balls thinks he's got the message right on the taxes and jobs to run into an election. He doesn't want to "muddy the water" with something as frivolous as making our MPs accountable.

But after last year we'd remind Balls "it's the democracy, stupid".

Unions join the debate on fair elections

As we heard yesterday, the debate inside the government is stepping up ahead of a crucial Parliamentary Labour Party's meeting on Monday. So we're pleased the Trade Unions Congress has stepped into the breach to give their commrades a few lessons about fair votes.

TUC General Secretary Brendon Barber echoes what we've been saying for months. In the forward to a new report Getting it in Proportion? he argues that “voting systems can have a real impact on the lives of ordinary people.”

Reform, to quote Barber, is now “not just a ‘chattering class’ issue.” The TUC has not even discussed the matter of reform for over 50 years.

We welcome the unions stepping up to the biggest debate in Westminster. Groups that have never given electoral reform a second thought are standing up to be counted. This isn’t about pie charts or acronyms. This is about the quality of government, the quality of our MPs and the ultimately the power we all have come polling day.

Let's hope Ed Balls and his allies are listening.

What’s in a name?

We don’t know what it is about School's Secretary Ed Balls' name. But a pattern is developing in our billboard challenge. Some are suggesting he might need to grow a pair. Others that his name pretty much sums up his position on reform of the House of Commons. A couple are frankly unsuitable for a family website.

But all of them reflect genuine anger at the back stairs plotting Mr Balls is set on to derail the referendum on voting reform. We’ve asked our supporters to pick the slogan we’re taking up to Normanton to grace a billboard slamming the Schools Secretary’s hypocrisy. And the response has been pretty damn good.

We have Cabinet ministers, and even the government’s own whips, working to derail a hard fought promise we extracted from the government after six long months of campaigning. These machinations are making news, but so is our bid to expose those who talk change but keep on working behind the scenes to hold it back.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jan/14/ministers-split-electoral-reform

Our supporters are helping us make reform an election issue. Let’s keep it coming!

http://www.voteforachange.co.uk/page/s/quicksignup

Back to Balls

This week we sent a message to David Cameron asking him how serious he was about Change. And it seems we were not alone.

Newsnight reported this week that our old rogue Schools Secretary Ed Balls is playing politics with reform, and his motives have little to do with actually fixing our broken parliament.

Balls seems intent on setting up voting reform as this parliament’s sacrificial lamb, for the Conservatives kill on queue.

But if Balls wants to prove a point about the Tories and their “Change” credentials they can’t forget about their own. Cameron would be wise to remember that his blocking of the bill has already been written into the script.

He needn’t play the role of Balls’ pantomime villain. Both Labour and Conservatives have an opportunity to make history. But first they’ll have to leave the cynicism at the door.

Well we’ve got a surprise for dear Ed. We’re asking our supporters to help redecorate the serial flipper's Normanton constituency. And you can help chose the colour scheme.

http://www.voteforachange.co.uk/EdBallsBillboard

We're putting up a billboard in Balls' Normanton seat, telling him exactly what we think of his opposition to a referendum. And we need your help to come up with a slogan for it.

http://www.voteforachange.co.uk/EdBallsBillboard

Any and all brilliant ideas welcome. Remember, we’re being cruel to be kind!