However grim this election has been, we should remember two things: (1) we are immensely privileged to live in a democracy: a right denied to millions of people across the world; (2) as democratic citizens, we have a duty to defend our democracy - because no one else will. THREAD
2. Across the world, democratic norms are under pressure. In the US, the world's flagship democracy, voter suppression and gerrymandering are endemic. The President called for his last opponent to be locked up & tried to blackmail a foreign state into subverting a likely rival.
3. In Britain, it is barely three months since a prime minister - parachuted into office by just 90,000 party activists - tried to shut down our elected Parliament. When the courts intervened and ruled this unlawful, his supporters stood and cheered him in the House of Commons.
4. Since then, a major party has doctored news-footage of its opponents, disguised its twitter-feed as a fraudulent fact-checking site, and produced adverts so dishonest that even Facebook took them down. inews.co.uk/news/politics/…
5. Institutionally, power has leaked from our elected Parliament to unelected party activists. A fee-paying membership picks prime ministers, imposes leaders & burns out MPs, vesting wholly anti-democratic powers in the hands of people we did not elect and cannot hold to account.
6. Worse still, we have an electoral system that treats millions of votes as worthless: that locks in the dominance of the established parties, shuts out new entrants, and tells electors that, if they want their vote to count, they must opt for parties they do not support.
7. First Past The Post is no longer just a flawed means of recording preferences. With the rise of tactical voting, it has become one of the central forces dictating voter behaviour, as people struggle to cast their ballots in ways that might counteract FPTP's destructive effects
8. On all sides, voters are being asked to back parties they dislike to stop parties they deplore - all to undo the effects of an electoral system built for a different age. In an increasingly polarised society, this is a slender thread on which to hang democratic consent.
9. It used to be said that FPTP forced parties to compromise: to build coalitions of voters covering a spectrum of opinion. Today, as member-led parties tack to the extremes, it is voters who are expected to compromise: picking the least objectionable party with a hope of winning
10. Our democracy needs serious, institutional reform. Our electoral laws predate the internet & desperately need updating. FPTP is democratically bankrupt & must be replaced. And we should reclaim for our parliamentary democracy powers that have been sold off to party activists.
11. But ultimately, a democracy is only as strong as our commitment to its values. If our leaders treat democracy with contempt - if they trash our institutions and lie to their voters - it's because they think we'll reward them at the ballot box. That calculation needs to change
12. A politician who lies to you - who feeds you fake news footage; who smears our parliamentary institutions; who looks into a camera and says "there's no press here" - is not some rogueish scamp, scrumping apples from the orchard. He is poisoning the wells of democratic debate.
13. Suspending Parliament should come with a cost. Political lying should be punished by the electorate. Ultimately, the security of a democracy lies not in the strictness of its laws or the virtue of its leaders, but in the courage and integrity of its citizens.
14. The right to live in a democracy is precious & rare: a right won by the struggle and sacrifice of others before us. As democratic citizens, we have obligations as well as privileges: to use our votes, to use them wisely, & to defend democracy from those who corrupt it. [ENDS]
