Birmingham University Labour Students

Constitutional reform is a particular bug-bear for me and it was suggested that I should write something negative about the Government.  I was thinking about commenting on this story about Fiona Gordon but it seems petty and irrelevant.  Frankly, if there’s a problem in staffing arrangements at Number 10 I don’t think it’s anyones business, we should focus on policy and actual results.  Which is why I want to write about the Government’s action on constitutional reform.

As the Guardian reports, the Government is ready to propose significant electoral changes, allowing polling stations to open on weekends and people to have a second vote.  It would be interesting to see some data on whether an alternative voting system would actually significantly alter the make up of the commons, votes would be redistributed until one candidate has over 50% so I’m guessing it would only be affective in marginal seats.   

This is a really important issue for me and many others, the House of Lords, in particular, needs some urgent reforms.  The Government are apparently proposing to elect the upper-chamber by using proportional voting.  An excellent idea that should have happened years ago.

The problem with constitution reform is that Labour attempts to represent the voice of progress and the Tories the voice of the status quo.  Labour has constantly allowed its radical proposals to be watered down by Tories in both chambers and opt to create large-scale commissions to investigate the issue.  We don’t want commissions or committees anymore, we need some positive results, if we really want the public to trust politicians again lets get serious about constitutional reform before it’s too late.