No hanging chads, please

Bob Alexander on the need to reform the voting system to get rid of ‘electoral bias’

One of New Labour’s most outspoken commitments in opposition was that it would reform Parliament. It vowed to make the House of Lords more democratic and representative and later committed itself to the Wakeham recommendation to introduce some elected members. But now it is reduced to a grudge match against the remaining hereditary peers who are there as part of the clandestine deal agreed by Lords Irvine and Cranborne to stand security for the government’s pledge to have a second stage of change.

But where real reform is needed is in the House of Commons. There are glaring inequities in the voting system. In opposition, Labour promised to set up an Independent Commission on the Voting System. It did so when elected. I gladly joined because the new government had also made a clear manifesto commitment to a referendum on the outcome.