Thread by @mafevema

👍 analysis on #ProgressiveAlliance
"Even the one piece of constructive news comes with alarm bells. Labour & the Lib Dems have clearly agreed a non-aggression pact but they have seemingly failed to reach any agreement about the use of proportional representation"
Summary 🧵

https://twitter.com/getprdone/status/1503343625748590596

The Lib Dems finally have some leverage now; they should use it while they can to secure assurances on electoral reform.
The basic error of the two parties excluding the Greens should ring another alarm bell.

The Greens have virtually no chance to win a 2nd MP but environmental issues are prominent enough that the Greens will peel off votes from a significant number of Labour or Lib Dem & allow Conservatives to win

This is the car crash that the “traffic-light” parties are heading for. It’s happened before, but they seem to have learned nothing. Further "the seething hatred between Labour and the SNP means they refuse to face the fact that Labour-SNP cooperation could be crucial."

To avoid the next car crash, the progressive parties need to do two things. First, they must bring the Greens into the Lib-Lab non-aggression pact. Second, the Lib Dems should be driving a hard bargain with Labour for electoral reform, with a proportional-voting system agreed now

The commitment to electoral reform should be part of a platform of core policies that make it into Labour, Lib Dem &Green manifestos, so anyone wanting to vote for one party can vote tactically for another & still support the main themes.

The list of core policies doesn’t have to be long – it could be just four or five – and they can be worded differently in each

But the bedrock has to be PR for the House of Commons. It is no magic bullet, but it’s the only way the smaller parties can cooperate. The Greens in particular have no incentive to pull back from their spoiler campaigns if they’re not offered PR

Labour has so much to gain by embracing it – not just electorally, but to ensure a the achievements of a Labour-led government aren’t undone in the next swing to the right.

How is it that all this which is OBVIOUS to many of us who have been advocating it for months still seems to bypass the leaderships of the 3 parties????