Comments on: Why proportional representation helps the BNP

By: The Author

The Author — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 14:06:24 +0000

By the way, the title of the piece was the work of the editors. I did not intend to suggest that PR will always work in favour of the BNP.

By: The Author

The Author — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 14:02:44 +0000

That was a joke, referring to the BNP’s Blimp-like attitudes.

By: icr

icr — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:55:51 +0000

“…alien electoral system…”

Xenophobia!!!

What do you have against “alien” ideas? This is Col. Blimp stuff.

By: The Author

The Author — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:56:26 +0000

Incidentally, PR in Israel encourages mainstream parties to form coalitions with minor, often more extreme, parties. Their form of democracy forces concessions and compromises, often against the will of the majority.

Obviously, bad policy cannot be solely cured by changes to the electoral system.
Re:election of Hamas- I agree and wish that Hamas could stand in the Israeli elections and that the people of the Occupied Territories could vote in them.

By: The Author

The Author — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 14:09:23 +0000

The article does not ignore the rising levels of support being gained by the BNP and I agree that Labour taking for granted the working class vote has contributed to this.

By: JJ

JJ — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:21:15 +0000

I agree with Michael: if anything, it’s right-wing neoliberal labour-bashing ‘Labour’ parties which provide the key new supporters for the BNP. To conclude that we must reduce democracy is ridiculous. This is just like blaming democracy, rather than the horrific and prolonged suffering of the Palestinians, for the election of Hamas.

By: Michael Calderbank

Michael Calderbank — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:25:04 +0000

Utter pernicious nonsense – PR does no such thing. Indeed as Jon Cruddas rightly says, PR is necessary to take the ground from under the growth in far right support. The far right often grows in areas where competitive elections have effectively decayed – estates in areas that would routinely elect councillors or MPs from the same party and which have therefore been taken for granted.
This leaves a vacuum of political representation that the far right is able to fill. This is why they have had so many councillors elected under FPTP, and why in a ward like Stoke’s “Abbey Green” – all the councillors are BNP despite two-thirds of the electorate consistently voting for other parties. FPTP could soon mean that the BNP is in outright control of a local council on a minority share of the vote. This COULD NOT happen under PR.

Your approach – to ignore the rising levels of support being gained by the BNP and try instead to undermine a democratic system to prevent people noticing – is extremely short-sighted, counter-productive and self-defeating. The emphasis should be precisely the opposite – the urgent need to overhaul the whole system of electing our MPs that has brought mainstream politics to its present crisis.