By Nigel Evans MP
Jack Straw’s recent comments on why he wants PR have left me somewhat stunned.
I’ve been the MP for the Ribble Valley (next door to his Blackburn constituency) for 18 years and not once have I heard Jack Straw flying the flag for proportional representation. He tells us his conversion has been brought about because of the expenses scandal. What utter tosh.
He argues unrest with the expenses scandal means we need electoral reform which will miraculously stop abuses of a squalid expenses system.
If there is something wrong with the expenses system then radical reform of that system is necessary, but this has nothing to do with how we vote. (It might influence the way that we vote or indeed if we vote at all.)
This referendum on the voting system has everything to do with a possible hung Parliament and nothing to do with cleansing the discredited expenses system.
The raison d’etre of the Liberal Democrat Party has been to change the first past the post system of voting to some form of PR. If the result of the election is a hung Parliament then the Liberal Democrats are likely to hold that balance of power. What might induce them to support keeping the Labour Party in power? Hmmm let’s just think… how about a referendum on PR?
PR will also mean deals will be done behind closed doors after the voting is over - meaning the electorate will end up with all sorts of policy deals which were wanted by a minority of the people.
Cynicism destroys the credibility of our Parliamentary democracy more than the system of how we vote. People can see what game the Labour Government are playing and are hugely cynical as to their motives.
People are reeling from high unemployment, Britain going earlier and deeper into recession than many of our close neighbours, high taxation, the closure of businesses, huge red tape, no immigration policy to speak of, our troops not getting the equipment they needed, pensioners being ignored, the Scots and the Welsh getting better funded services than England, Europe taking over our sovereignty, and the final insult, the people being offered a referendum on the Lisbon treaty by a Prime Minister who then withdrew it when he could see they were going to lose it. The Lisbon Treaty also created the job of President of the European Council which the then PM coveted.
People will not be fooled by this death bed conversion to PR. Changing the voting system will not address the country’s problems, but changing this rotten Government will.
