Today’s Queen’s Speech, outlining the 18-month legislative programme of Britain’s first coalition government since the Second World War, is likely to include a promise of a referendum on voting reform as part of the proposed parliamentary reform bill.
Nick Clegg and his Lib Dem colleagues in the coalition cabinet will be spinning the referendum pledge as a great victory for the party. But, of course, the referendum will be on the Alternative Vote (AV), and not on a fully proportional system, which the Liberal Democrats have campaigned for since time immemorial (and to which they were committed in their own manifesto). Plus, their Conservative allies in government are free to campaign against AV during the referendum campaign.
So — surprise, surprise! — Nick Clegg has been reaching out to his scorned lover, the Labour Party, as he begins his personal campaign to convince the electorate of the need for electoral reform. Here is the Deputy Prime Minister on The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday morning:
No one should be surprised that, as a Liberal Democrat, I passionately believe that our electoral system at the moment doesn’t work and it can be made fairer, so that people’s views are more prom– . . . you know, are better reflected in the House of Commons. That’s of course what we’ll campaign on. And yes I will be reaching out to people from other parties — not just the Conservative Party but the Labour Party as well — saying if you believe in a different kind of politics, when it comes to a referendum, let’s all join together to try and argue the case for change.
The Labour Party has two options. Either it can junk its own manifesto commitment to the Alternative Vote, in an act of petulance, and join the Tories in campaigning against change, thereby embarrassing, isolating and “punishing” the Lib Dems for their alliance with the Conservatives. This might be the preferred strategy of an instinctive first-past-the-poster like Ed Balls.
Or it can be much bolder than it has been in the past, ditch its tribalism and conservatism on electoral reform, and (belatedly) push for out-and-out proportional representation, in the form of AV+ (as recommended by Roy Jenkins back in 1998). At a stroke, Labour would seize the constitutional high ground, attract disillusioned Lib Dem voters into the fold, outflank Clegg, Huhne et al, and exacerbate tensions inside the Con-Dem coalition.
This is the view of the former home secretary Alan Johnson (why are you not standing, Alan??), writing in Sunday’s Observer:
The new government is committed to a referendum on a new voting system. It will contain two options — the current first-past-the-post system and the Alternative Vote. It will be the first time in the history of our democracy that its citizens will have a say in how their votes are translated into political power.
What possible argument can there be against adding the recommendation of the Independent Commission on the Voting System, AV+, as a third option? It retains the constituency link, extends voter choice and is broadly proportional.
Johnson adds: “I will certainly be making the case within my own party to submit legislative amendments to that effect.”
Brothers Miliband — are you listening to AJ? Please do so. You, your party and your country have much to gain.
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