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As usual, John Rentoul in the Independent on Sunday wrote an interesting piece about Clegg and the LibDems teaming up with Cameron and the Conservatives rather than Labour. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-rentoul/john-rentoul-cleggs-right-to-cosy-up-to-cameron-1969230.html

Whilst I am a great fan of his articles, I had to point out a flaw which is all too common in the Media: “There is a lot of wishful thinking on the left about a progressive coalition that won 52 per cent of the vote in the election. Labour’s 29 per cent plus the Liberal Democrats’ 23 per cent outvotes the reactionary fox-hunting sceptic Tories with their measly 36 per cent.”

Constituency Based

It is wrong to write about National percentages of the vote when our system is based upon individual constituencies returning one member. Under our current system, we in fact have 650 separate election ‘battles’ taking place on the same day on a win or lose basis, it is not a “National Election”, a voter in Liverpool cannot vote for a candidate in Brighton. So for political parties to talk about their percentage of the “National Vote” is total nonsense, they are in effect just counting their losses.

It is perfectly possible under the one MP to one constituency system we have for a national party to ‘win’ a high percentage of the ‘national vote’ and not gain a single seat but then again, most people seem to forget that under our current system, you are meant to choose the best candidate to represent you at the national level from those that stand in your constituency, most people vote for a political party and that is the real problem.

Imagine that political parties were outlawed and only individuals could stand and be elected to Parliament, there is no problem because it is as it was meant to be 650 individual and personal battles to win a seat and the fact that the winner had 25,000 votes and the runner up 24,950 would not matter at all, it only becomes a problem when you attach a “Party Label” to the candidate and forget what it is all supposed to be about. Under such circumstances, would we entertain a protest because 2,000 people with the surname ‘Brown’ stood in various constituencies and not one got elected ?

Personal Experience

I voted Tory, being the West Country, our sitting Tory MP of the past 27 years lost his seat to a LibDem by just 800 votes, I may be sorry that he lost but do I feel that my vote was ‘wasted’ ? Of course not, it was one constituency battle amid 649 others and we will get another chance within the year as we all know.

There is only one way to ensure ‘fairness’ based upon the national vote which is to disassociate the MP from a particular constituency. We vote for the Party of our choice and an “Electoral College” issues us with an MP from a pool of “Potential MPs List” that each party gives them. then a 10 percent of the national vote equals 65 MPs. Of course the down side to this is that 10 percent could belong to an extreme party of some kind so that Southall ends up with a BNP MP which might be a bit exotic or should that read ‘toxic’ ?

I am open minded on the matter but the case for PR is an intellectual nonsense and instead of PR, is what people want permanent coalition government ? On the other hand, just because the electorate were too scared to make a positive decision in this election, is their apparent desire for a coalition, just a passing fad a sort of political “Hula Hoop” fashion ?

A New Constitutional Arrangement – Devolution a Cock Up

It is correct to say that Alex Salmon has never made any secret of his intention to use a “Westminster Position” to leverage benefits for Scotland and in doing so, it is obvious that both Labour and LibDem Scottish MPs might have to dance to his tune, over Westminster legislation to some degree because of local Scottish dimensions.

But he is not wrong to take this line, that is what he was elected to do by his constituents. However it does illustrate that the whole Devolution issue was cocked up by Labour and whilst what has been given, cannot now be taken away, its functions can be amended to make it work better for all.

Personally I would resist having a written Constitution because they can become totally moribund rather quickly and as in the US, an amendment to their Constitution on “Fast Track” would take 10 years. Historically, it is not our way of doing things which is why our “Constitution” is in effect written down on various bits of paper such as Magna Carta, The Bill of Rights and so forth, normally documents drawn up to settle a particular set of grievances at the time which adopted, incorporated, sometimes superseded, sometimes ran in parallel with earlier such documents.

It is important to understand why this grew up in the first place, by the time we arrived in Britain at written down Laws, England in particular was an “Old Country” with accepted customs and traditions so if you look at Magna Carta, it contains elements of Saxon and earlier Danish Laws and customs rather than the Norman/French ones you might expect especially as this was ‘negotiated’ by Norman Knights and Barons in the first place but even then, “Politics was the art of the possible”.

A Federal Solution

Although radical, the way forward would be to take Cameron at his word and push for devolving just about everything down to the local level in terms of Health, Education, Policing and everything else that can be better managed at the local level. Also move to a Federal UK and whilst using the current tax collection system, rebate to each of the Celtic Assemblies and the English Counties a percentage of the revenues collected within their territory, say (for arguments sake), 60 percent with Central Government retaining the remainder for Defence, Foreign Policy and so on plus holding a Central Grant Fund for “regional projects” that any unit of the Local Administrations can apply for a slice of.

Westminster becomes the UK Parliament for one week in 4 unless “Specially Summoned for National emergencies, the rest of the time, it is the English Parliament. Whilst Northern Ireland may present some initial difficulties, in Wales and Scotland, election to the Assembly or Scottish Parliament by some, would also buy a place in the UK Parliament automatically.

Yes, there are lots of details to be worked out but the simple truth, unlike all the blather about PR being “The Answer”, we need to get local communities involved in their local issues and with them knowing that whoever they elect and by whatever system, gets not just the legal power but also the funding to carry out the wishes of the people who voted them in and that amount is transparent and publicly accounted for.