My Wishlist for Our Democracy Includes a New Voting System ; On the International Day of Democracy, Cardiff North Mp Julie Morgan Calls for an Overhaul of the Uk's Voting System, a Lowering of the Voting Age and Better Representation for Women and Minority Groups

Western Mail › September 15, 2009

Linked as:

Summary

TODAY marks the celebration of the International Day of Democracy, established in 2007 by the UN General Assembly to be marked every September 15. As such it seems a good day to look at democracy in this country, after a year when expenses and scandals have shaken the image of Parliament, and to list some of the changes I would like to see that I feel would improve our democracy and make it more representative of the people it serves.

The first change I would like to see is the introduction of a voting system that makes more and better use of proportional representation. Our current, first past the post, system is certainly one that works and that produces stable governments with generally workable majorities. However, it is fundamentally unfair. How can it be reasonable that when the Conservative Party consistently polled approximately 20% of the vote in Wales at both the 1997 and 2001 Westminster elections it failed to have a single MP elected from a Welsh constituency? Proportional Representation is often presented as being something that would favour Labour and other left-of-centre parties.

See the full content of this document

Extract

My Wishlist for Our Democracy Includes a New Voting System ; On the International Day of Democracy, Cardiff North Mp Julie Morgan Calls for an Overhaul of the Uk's Voting System, a Lowering of the Voting Age and Better Representation for Women and Minority Groups

However, it is worth remembering that in Wales it would favour the Conservatives more than anyone. This may seem to go against the interests of Labour, the party I represent, but it seems to me that some form of proportional...

See the full content of this document