Freeborn Adam

2 days after an election that delivered a hung parliament, in which I voted Liberal Democrat because they are the party whose policies form the least worst fit with my beliefs and values and, above all, they stand on a platform of proportional representation, the people are being urged to march. To show their dissatisfaction with an electoral system that could return a party to power with an absolute majority with 40% of the votes, while disenfranchising a party with 23% of the votes by returning them less than 9% of the seats.

I have been a believer in and campaigner for PR all my adult life. But I will not be marching today.

After the noise and shouting has died down, then the real work can begin again. What we have now is a spectacle. A sideshow. After the testosterone fueled election (and despite the attempts to increase female participation at higher levels of politics it remains a whiskey and testosterone fueled game) it is natural that people should express their outrage. People who didn’t get the electoral result they wanted express anger, people who did, party. In effect it is no different to the aftermath of a football match. One side wins, one side loses to a greater or lesser degree.

In the long run though, that is a fleeting, emotive response. Cameron claims that Lib Dems want PR because they would benefit from it. Clegg claims the Tories don’t because they benefit from the status quo. Noise and thunder, all of it.

There are intelligent people behind this election, voters, members of the electorate, who do not agree with me on the issue that I consider singularly most important to the future of politics in this country, that of electoral reform. They have cogent criticisms and concerns. Now begins the task, not of wearing purple and claiming that PR and electoral reform is on a par with women’s suffrage and other fancy dramatic public relations stunts, but of meeting these objections head on. Of engaging with those whose opinions differ, and presenting the solid arguments for while discussing openly and intelligently the arguments against until we can reach a consensus.

I will not be asking Clegg to force through PR. I will be asking that the government bring it to referendum. It seems somehow contrary to the principle of fair election that we attempt to bully PR into the constitution. But not yet. There is work to be done first.