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Wednesday, 10 February 2010
George says make our votes count
It's clear that the political process in this country has been dragged through the mud by the expenses scandal. With real reform of the voting system - where people's votes actually counted - perhaps we would not have had so many abuses. We certainly wouldn't have had so many badly thought out pieces of legislation voted through Parliament by MPs who have no fear of losing their seats.
But then I suppose that’s why the leaders of both Labour and the Conservatives are so set against a truly proportional system of voting.
Highlights of George's speech in the Constitutional Reform & Governance Bill Debate are below and you can listen at the bottom:-
Mr. George Galloway (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Respect): Like the hon. Member for City of York (Hugh Bayley), I am a long-time member of the Labour campaign for proportional representation….
I came here this evening to support amendment (b), standing in the name of the Liberal Democrats, although I almost lost the will to live as we approached the 50th minute of the speech by the hon. Member for Cambridge (David Howarth). I have sufficiently woken up that I will still vote for that amendment. However, in extremis, like the hon. Member for Foyle, I will support the Government, and for the same reasons: that what is proposed is a step forward and a slight improvement.
I came here this evening to support amendment (b), standing in the name of the Liberal Democrats, although I almost lost the will to live as we approached the 50th minute of the speech by the hon. Member for Cambridge (David Howarth). I have sufficiently woken up that I will still vote for that amendment. However, in extremis, like the hon. Member for Foyle, I will support the Government, and for the same reasons: that what is proposed is a step forward and a slight improvement.
The Government are making a big mistake if they think that this little broom is going to sweep clean the Augean stables in this place. The labours of Hercules and the diversion of great rivers were required to cleanse the stench of those stables, and this little broom—this tiny little reform—will not do it. It will take far more radical proposals than this Government are likely to introduce to restore public trust in this place, and far more than have been canvassed in this debate, which, I am sorry to say, has been characterised by a complacent, joking, student debating society approach ….
I have sat here for six and a half hours, shaking my head at the complacency on view on both sides. Members have no idea of the contempt out there in the country for the kind of debate and debating styles that have been on display this evening.
I have sat here for six and a half hours, shaking my head at the complacency on view on both sides. Members have no idea of the contempt out there in the country for the kind of debate and debating styles that have been on display this evening.
The reforms that we need in this place are beyond the reach of the existing Members of the House of Commons. That is why we urgently need a general election as soon as possible. We need to change the way in which we approach all our politics, and in my view, that includes retiring this very building. We need to acknowledge that it has become a museum ….
I am in favour of the kind of reforms that are beyond this House….
That there is cynicism is obvious. The Government are in favour of a referendum on this—a voting system that no one in the country is talking about—but on nothing else. A referendum on the Lisbon treaty, which everyone in the country was talking about, was promised in the manifesto, but it was denied.
That there is cynicism is obvious. The Government are in favour of a referendum on this—a voting system that no one in the country is talking about—but on nothing else. A referendum on the Lisbon treaty, which everyone in the country was talking about, was promised in the manifesto, but it was denied.
I regret to say that my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh, North and Leith (Mark Lazarowicz)—with whom I was long associated—painted a picture of a Scottish people unable to grasp the complexities of the single transferrable vote system…..
The single transferable vote system may or may not be beyond the voters in Edinburgh, but my experience of Edinburgh is that nothing is beyond them. It is certainly not beyond the voters of the Republic of Ireland who have developed that system into a fine art. It is as fine an art of political sophistication as is available anywhere in the western world. It is not beyond our people to grasp its complexities….
If we moved to the system in the Republic of Ireland, as we can do if we support amendment (b) this evening, things would change. But then, if things do not change, there is no hope for politics in this country. [Interruption.] I hear a sedentary intervention saying there is no hope for me. I have won five general elections, the first of which was against the great Roy Jenkins, who was prayed in aid by the hon. Member for Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath (Mr. Godsiff) earlier this evening. Roy Jenkins was the first pillar of the establishment I defeated; he was not the last, and there may be more to come. Don’t bet the farm on that.
Roy Jenkins suggested to this Government more than 10 years ago that they could have grasped this nettle, yet they refused to do so for the same cynical reason that they are now grasping for it. If they had listened to Roy Jenkins and implemented the Jenkins commission report, the centre-left majority that exists is this country would be entrenched in power and the right-wing rump represented by these people here, who opposed votes for women, who opposed votes for working men—[Interruption.] They can laugh, but people know that the words democracy and the Conservative party do not easily fit together. This right-wing rump—[Interruption.]
Mr. Galloway: This right-wing rump—for a variety of reasons that I have no time to develop—now stands on the brink of power, but they would never have been in power again if Jenkins had been listened to and electoral reform had been implemented. Do the maths; look at any opinion poll; add up the Labour and the Liberal and the Scottish and Welsh nationalists and Respect and other parties, and it is easy to see that there is a very clear centre-left majority in this country. What would be wrong with an electoral system that gave the House of Commons the actual levels of representation that the people had voted for?
…..My last words are that proportional representation is about giving people what they vote for. I have heard all sorts of asinine comments tonight about small parties being the prerogative for idiots. It was twice said that people who vote for the third or the fourth party are idiots. Well, that is a good way to increase their popularity, but those people have as much right to choose how this House of Commons looks like as any of those supporting what we increasingly less often can call the major parties.
Proportional representation is about giving people a House of Commons that reflects how they voted. What is wrong with a system that provides 10 per cent. or 30 per cent. or 50 per cent. of the seats in a Parliament if the party received 10 per cent. or 30 per cent. or 50 per cent. of the votes. What is wrong with that? I will tell you what is wrong with it, Mrs. Heal. It would put the iron-clad consensus that normally exists across this Chamber out of business—and that would be a good thing, too.
Listen to George's speech here
Listen to George's speech here
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