Imagine what a different country this would be if Blair had put the political effort he invested in the Iraq War into political and electoral reform instead. If Labour take power again, they must not waste the chance to replace our unfair system and create lasting change.
If this is to happen, Starmer needs to begin work on it now, not in 2024. He needs to start explaining the case for change, not least to his own party, which retains a self-destructive obsession with first-past-the-post.
With a fair electoral system, with Labour prepared to work with other progressive parties, it's hard to see how the Tories could ever again dominate our politics. Labour might never win an absolute majority, but they would be more likely to sustain a share of power.
It would also permit something that has long needed to happen, but is electorally impossible under FTPT, namely for Labour to split into the 2 parties it really is: the Starmerite centrists and the Corbynite leftists. FPTP sustains Labour's endless civil war.
This is one of the reasons why I have no interest in engaging in Labour's civil war. It is a structural feature that cannot be resolved through argument.
I see people wasting their lives on this war, while failing to recognise that it's an artefact of our electoral system. It would be much better to combine (as some people in Labour have begun to do) to change the system.
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