Caroline Lucas - Voting reform
Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party, talks about Labour's plan for a 2011 referendum on the AV voting system:
"Gordon Brown's attempts to portray himself as the great constitutional reformer sadly look more like a cynical attempt to outmanouevre the Tories. If Labour were really serious about electoral reform, they would have introduced a referendum when they first promised it, back in 1997, not just a few short months before the next election, which looks likely to see them ousted from government. They would also have given the public a genuine choice of electoral system. Deciding to offer a choice between our archaic first-past-the-post system, and the Alternative Vote system, still doesn't give people an opportunity to make sure their vote counts."
"Indeed, AV is still slanted in favour of the bigger parties, and tends to exaggerate large swings. If we're really being democratic, we should be focusing on delivering what the voters want. A properly proportional system would guarantee, for instance, that if 30% of the voters vote for Conservative candidates, 30% of the MPs will be conservative. And if 10% of the voters want Green MPs, 10% of the MPs will be Greens. This is not what's on offer."
"We need a simple, fair and inclusive electoral system, not a fake reform that covers its embarrassment with acronyms and jargon. Our current system creates hundreds of seats where the views of ordinary people do not seem to matter. In the aftermath of the expenses crisis, the electorate wants genuine political reform. We want tens of millions of people to decide the next Parliament, not a few hundred thousand swing voters who will decide who runs the country at the general election. And we want electoral reform to be part of a wider constitutional reform, which includes a fully elected second Chamber, and the right of recall."
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