Peter Tatchell Encourages Green Supporters To Vote For The Liberal Democrats
April 30, 2010 2:24 PM
Former Green Party candidate and gay rights activist Peter Tatchell is encouraging Green supporters to vote for the Liberal Democrats in seats that the Greens are not targeting to win.
Mr Tatchell, who is the Green Party's human rights and LGBT spokesman (although it should be noted that he was not speaking on behalf of the Green Party when he made these comments), said that even people who usually vote Green should support incumbent Liberal Democrat MPs or those likely to succeed because of the Liberal Democrat's pledge to reform politics in favour of a fair voting system.
He said: "On May 6th, Labour could come third in the number of votes but still end up with the most seats. That is not democracy. The voting system is corrupt and has to change.
"The Greens support voting reform but the Lib Dems are the only major party committed to a fairer voting system.
"If they hold the balance of power, the Lib Dems will almost certainly ensure a fairer voting system which will be the single biggest democratic advance in Britain since the suffragettes."
He added that he was still encouraging people to vote Green in the party's target areas, such as Brighton Pavilion, but urged people to vote Liberal Democrat in other seats.
Stephen Williams, Liberal Democrat candidate in Bristol West, said, "I am delighted that Peter Tatchell is urging people to support the Liberal Democrat candidates in seats that they already hold. I have worked hard in the last five years to highlight many of the issues that are dear to Green supporters in the House of Commons. I have also supported and indeed lead many campaigns in connection with gay rights and applaud Peter's long-standing record in this area."
Implementing a fair voting system forms part of one of the Liberal Democrats' four key election pledges to reform Parliament to make it more open, fair and representative of the people who elect its members. We would make sure that everybody's vote counts by introducing fair votes for all local and national elections.
We believe that this country cannot truly call itself a representative democracy when the make-up of our legislative body is determined by a handful of voters in a few marginal seats, and when one party can attain a governing majority with just 35% of the popular vote, which was the share won by Tony Blair in 2005. Any meaningful response to the recent political crisis must address not only the expenses system, but the voting system that makes MPs in safe seats unaccountable to their voters and leaves people disempowered and disconnected from politics. Many MPs are effectively 'Life MPs', not much better than Life Peers in the House of Lords.
The Labour Party's election pledge to hold a referendum on the alternative vote system some time in the next parliament is simply not good enough - especially as Labour reneged on its 1997 promise to hold a referendum on a proportional system, which alternative vote is not. The AV electoral system is not proportional - it doesn't mean that the number of seats each party wins in Parliament will roughly correlate to the number of votes they gained across the country. The AV system simply ensures that each individual Member of Parliament has to gain majority (50%+) support in their constituency. This is a small step forward, but hardly a cause for celebration.
The First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) electoral system that has operated in Britain since 1885 is not set up to accommodate the multi-party politics of the 21st century and produces absurd anomalies. In 2005:
• Only 34% of MPs gained the support of a majority of those voting in their constituency;
• The Government won 55% of the seats in the House of Commons with just 35% of the national vote;
• The Conservatives won more votes in England than did Labour, but only won 194 seats to Labour's 286;
• The Liberal Democrats won 23% of the vote in Great Britain, but only 10% of the seats in the House of Commons.
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