12 years to re-state a watered-down pledge. So much for progress. #lab09

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12 years to re-state a watered-down pledge. So much for progress. #lab09

By Stephen Tall | Tue 29th September 2009 - 6:25 pm

Follow @stephentall

The Labour Party manifesto 1997:

We are committed to a referendum on the voting system for the House of Commons. An independent commission on voting systems will be appointed early to recommend a proportional alternative to the first-past-the-post system.

Gordon Brown’s speech to the Labour Party conference 2009:

There is now a stronger case than ever that MPs should be elected with the support of more than half their voters – as they would be under the Alternative Voting system. And so I can announce today that in Labour’s next manifesto there will be a commitment for a referendum to be held early in the next Parliament it will be for the people to decide whether they want to move to the Alternative Vote.

So a 1997 commitment to a proprotional electoral system has become a 2009 commitment to hold a referendum after the next election for a non-proportional system.

Still, at least on House of Lord reform the Labour Party has remained consistent – they’re still trying to remove the hereditary principle:

1997 manifesto: As an initial, self-contained reform, not dependent on further reform in the future, the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords will be ended by statute.

2009 speech: In this next year we will remove the hereditary principle in the House of Lords once and for all.

Read more by Stephen Tall or more about alternative vote, electoral reform, gordon brown, labour party or proportional representation.
This entry was posted in News.

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One Comment

Mouse 30th Sep '09 - 1:24pm

There is now a stronger case than ever that Governments should be elected with the support of more than half the voters

One Trackback

By The problem with Gordon’s speech was that it was so Gordon #lab09 | Mark Pack on Wed 30th September 2009 at 3:18 pm.

[…] referendum on electoral reform – but, as Stephen’s pointed out, it’s only a watered down version of the manifesto promise he stood on 12 years […]

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