Author Archives: Ben Stephenson

Opinion: Why are we campaigning for AV?

By Ben Stephenson | 25th July 2010 - 10:25 am

We have never really been able to call the UK a true democracy. We have an unelected second chamber, made up of Lords Spiritual (Bishops), Lords Temporal (those granted hereditary peerages and selected by unelected party leaders) and Lords Surprising (Messrs Sugar and Prescott). The electorate in this country is allowed to vote for a change in government, so far, only at times that suit the government of the day and we have no codified constitution that outlines, irrevocably, a list of rights and freedoms.

The most obvious and fundamental issue with our democracy, however, is obviously the extent to which …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged av referendum and electoral reform | 48 Comments

Opinion: A Letter to Nick Clegg

By Ben Stephenson | 8th May 2010 - 3:45 pm

Dear Nick,

Don’t give away the family silver. Since the formation of the Liberal Party all those years ago, we’ve campaigned for massive overhaul and clear change to the way in which are governments are appointed. Throughout a raft of changes in policy on education, defence, welfare and the economy, the one steadfast within the party has always been that with a quarter of the votes returning ten percent of the seats, the election system in our country simply does not work.

To discuss the notion of a coalition government with the Conservative Party, a party at whose core lies the belief …