At last the Labour Party has shown its true colours on electoral reform. Just months after over half the Labour Party vocally opposed the Alternative Vote Referendum, a major policy shift has emerged in Wales that threatens the very notion of Welsh democracy. This is a policy put forward by the shadow Welsh secretary, Peter Hain which aims to change the Welsh Assembly voting system from the Additional Member System to First Past the Post. The current system used in the Welsh Assembly is an Additional Member System made up of 40 seats elected on a constituency First Past the Post basis; with the remaining 20 seats elected by Proportional Representation on a regional list basis. The plan by the shadow Welsh secretary is to reform the Welsh voting system to the Welsh Assembly not by bringing it into the 21st century but by dragging it back into the electoral dark ages.
The Welsh Labour Party draws its impetus to rejuvenate First Past the Post in Wales from two sources. Firstly, the defeat of the Alternative Vote Referendum and secondly, the plan by Westminster MPs to reduce the number of MPs in Wales from 40 to 30. Added to this notion, the plan put forward by the Welsh Labour Party would see Welsh constituencies in the Welsh Assembly elect two members per constituency. This abolition of the Proportional Representation regional list would make the Welsh Assembly truly determinant on First Past the Post and that could only ever benefit one political party, that of the Labour Party. Labour has emerged in all four assembly elections as the largest party and with the added advantage of total First Past the Post Labour would receive an absolute majority in the Welsh Assembly after every election. Wales would truly become a one party state. This is nothing more than a stitch up by the Labour Party designed to move the goalposts of democracy in Wales in order to benefit itself and undermine the opposition parties in the assembly. In the latest election held in May of this year the Conservatives, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats received the majority of their seats from the regional list. First past the post would clearly undermine the three opposition parties in the Welsh Assembly and strengthen the position of the Labour Party and its First Minister, Carwyn Jones.
I for one have always been quite dubious of the claims of the Labour Party to favour of electoral reform after their opposition to the Alternative Vote, this policy shift in Wales surely puts that notion to rest. Labour has nothing to offer when it comes to electoral reform. They are not liberal and progressive in this respect, they are conservative and traditionalist. And their aims are truly tribalist and self-interested. In Wales as well as in the rest of the United Kingdom they support First Past the Post solely because it benefits themselves. Hopefully, the people of Wales will see through this stitch up by the Labour Party especially given the Welsh political traditions of Liberalism and Radicalism. The idea of electoral reform to Labour is not to insure that everybody's vote has equal weight and equal value and that election results are determined fairly with each party getting a fair and accurate proportional of the seats but by ensuring that more people are disenfranchised, less votes count, the parties have fewer representatives and that democracy as an institution is undermined. Labour has once more shown their true colours when it comes to electoral reform. They are willing to stitch up democracy in order to benefit themselves and not the votes of the people, whether it is their majority opposition to the Alternative Vote or the fact that they are willing to introduce First Past the Post in the Welsh Assembly, Labour cannot be trusted on electoral reform. There is only one political party that can be trusted to reform British politics and Britain's electoral system and that is the Liberal Democrats. See the article regarding Labour’s plans here: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2011/07/14/first-past-the-post-for-senedd-has-labour-vote-91466-29049445/
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