Weighted members 2

Weighted members: further remarks

 

Electoral Reform Society

6 Chancel St.

LONDON, SE1 0UU

25 April 2010

 

Dear Sir,

Proportional Representation by Weighted Members

In a letter to The Times on 7^th April I outlined what I called "Proportional Representation by Weighted Members". (See below). The idea is so simple that it has probably occurred to many people, but it is not currently being discussed and I therefore think it would be worthwhile for you to examine the suggestion. It has some merits and in some respects a superiority over all currently canvassed schemes for the reform of parliament.

Essence

In essence the suggestion is that current constituencies are not changed and nor is the voting system at general elections. However, subsequently, at each division of the House of Commons the inequalities in representation are repaired by weighting the members according to the total votes cast for their party at the election by which they were elected to parliament. Thus, at the 2005 general election, each Labour member represented 26,860 votes, each Conservative member 44,306 votes, each Lib Dem member 96,482, etc.. Each Lib Dem member at the Ayes lobby counts for 96,482 votes, each Labour member for 26,860 votes. (See Table below)

Features

Parties that won no seats in a general election would have no influence on the decisions of the House. However, provided that at least one member were elected to parliament, and voted on a particular issue, their voting strength would exactly represent the opinion in the country (in so far as a political party has a definite policy on, or a predictable attitude to, the issue in question.

The geographical relationship between a member and a constituency would remain. However, a member with a party affiliation would additionally represent voters in other constituencies who support his party but who failed to elect their representative and whose votes would therefore be wasted in the current system.

The personal qualities of an individual candidate would remain vital in getting him elected to the House (as is not the case with party list systems).

The most powerful single party would presumably be asked to form a government, which might not be the party with the greatest number of seats. Its cabinet would presumably bring forward policies to the House, where they might get blocked by a coalition of minor parties (in the likely event that no one party had greater than 50% of the total votes cast at the general election; viz  in the event of a 'hung parliament'). However, it is not the case that such blockage would be inevitable with a hung parliament as it is absurd to suppose that responsible members would vote repeatedly for chaos. Party whips and members thinking for themselves would have to assess each measure on its merits; which seems no bad thing.

Unique advantages

[1]  The system of PR by weighted member is extremely easy to institute. It requires no change to constituencies of the conduct of elections. It requires only that the party affiliations (if any) of members of parliament be known officially, and their names taken at each division of the House of Commons.

[2]  The system can even be instituted without the consent of the two major parties, who traditionally (and understandably though cynically) resist any reform that would weaken their political dominance.

[3]  It allows the examination of the effects of a proportional parliament without the fearsome step of dismantling the present system.

[4]  It might therefore be considered as a way of  pressing the case for reform of the House.

 

I would appreciate your considered views.

Yours sincerely,  Ian West

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Table of weightings for the 2005 parliament

	2005 General Election				Votes per seat
Party	Seats	% Seats	% Votes	Total vote
Labour	356	55.2	35.3	9,562,122	26860
Conservative	198	30.7	32.3	8,772,598	44306
Liberal Democrat	62	9.6	22.1	5,981,874	96482
UKIP	0	0	2.2	603,298
SNP	6	0.9	1.5	412,267	68711
Green	0	0	1	257,758
Demo. Unionist	9	1.4	0.9	241,856	26873
BNP	0	0	0.7	192,746
Plaid Cymru	3	0.5	0.6	174,838	58279
Sinn F司n	5	0.8	0.6	174,530	34906
Ulster Unionist	1	0.2	0.5	127,414	127414
SDLP	3	0.5	0.5	125,626	41875
Independent	1	0.2	0.5	122,000	122000
Respect	1	0.2	0.3	68,094	68094