We’re a vibrant, multi-party democracy – but Westminster’s voting system locks voters out.
This is a national debate, but elections will take place in 650 constituencies. Many of them will not have changed hands for decades among the stale effect of our broken electoral system.
Under Westminster’s First Past the Post system, parties can take over with a fraction of the vote. 68% of votes at the last General Election didn’t count towards the local result, leaving people feeling voiceless.
This election is one of the few left in the UK to still use a broken winner-takes-all system. In Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and London, proportional representation ensures seats match votes electoral-reform.org.uk/where-is-propo…
This should be the last election conducted under Westminster’s rotten winner-takes-all voting system. Johnson and Corbyn should commit to making seats match votes #LeadersDebate
As always, the parliament we ended up with looked nothing like the way we voted - this is because Westminster's voting system warps the results.
With First Past the Post, minuscule changes in the vote can have major impacts. The Conservatives gained a 7% increase in seats from 2017 – on a 1% increase in vote share - delivering their largest majority since 1987. The Lib Dems increased their vote share, but lost a seat.
As results are announced today for councils across the country, we are already starting to see some wildly disproportionate results.
It doesn't have to be like this, when Scottish council results are announced later, the seats each party get will be in proportion to how many people voted for them - as they don't use first past the post. ers.tools/local-democracy
The #ElectionsBill, which passed last night, will make it harder to vote for millions, while making it easier for the government to control the Electoral Commission. It’s a travesty that parliamentarians passed a Bill that erodes our precious democracy. mirror.co.uk/news/politics/…
The law will only make it harder for some people - older people can use bus passes and 60+ Oyster cards as valid forms of ID - but young people’s railcards, and student Oyster cards will not be permitted. bigissue.com/news/politics/…
The government overrode a compromise amendment, suggested by a Conservative Peer, that would have expanded the list of acceptable IDs - instead they adopted their own arbitrary and restrictive list.
The #ElectionsBill is having its second reading in the House of Lords today - there is a lot wrong with this bill, from spending millions to make it harder to vote, to reducing the independence of our Electoral Commission.
Around 2.1 million people lack the necessary identification for their voter ID scheme, according to the government’s own research. Checking millions of documents and supplying ID will cost up to £180 million a decade electoral-reform.org.uk/expensive-vote…
Poll workers will have the power to turn voters away if they think an old photo doesn't look enough like them. Unlike border police, poll workers are not specially trained to do this sort of work. Growing a beard or getting a bold haircut shouldn't disenfranchise you.
Following the retirement of Viscount Ridley there is going to be a Conservative hereditary peer by-election. The 45 Conservative hereditary peers in the Lords will be voting to select who will get a seat in the Lords for life as his replacement. parliament.uk/globalassets/d…
Candidates, drawn from a list of Conservative hereditary peers outside the Lords, submit short, often bizarre, statements such as the below to garner support.
This time though, one candidate has gone a bit further than usual, submitting a peculiar YouTube search link as his statement... youtube.com/results?search…