A Quick Note on Electoral Reform & a Hung Parliament

We have been hearing in the media plenty about changing the face of politics in this country - the claim, a rightful one when taken in its entirety and with viewed with spectacles that can see forward 50-100 years and not ones that can only see a vision that last until 7 May, comes from the recent debacle we have been put through with the MP's expenses scandal combined with the knowledge that this is only the tip of the iceberg - an iceberg so big it is able to cut the whole of Britain in two, let alone the titanic.

We lack at the moment in our Parliament any sort of proper debate due to the way in which our electoral system favours massive majorities that do not represent the actual views of a more politically divided populous, and as such I do believe that the House of Lords has done a good (not complete, nor easy, nor always consistent with my own views) job in keeping the government in check - because the House of Commons poses no real threat to the government of the day so long as they can hold the allegiance of their MP's (something not always to be taken for granted!). We have needed the House of Lords, with it's current make-up of Lords Spiritual (who sit in the Lords due to their ecclesial offices) and Lords Temporal (majority of Lords, partisan, including some hereditary), to keep a check on the government of the day.

There has been over the past 13 years of Labour a (semi) commitment to reforming the Lords, and we see this policy being taken up as a major policy by both Labour and the Liberal Democrats in the current election campaign - as part of a wider political reform that includes electoral reform of the House of Commons too.

I am very worried by the proposal of an all elected House of Lords that has been emanating from Labour and Lib Dem camps. The House of Lords provides our parliamentary process with two very important things: it provides a chance for experts in various areas of public life to both examine legislation prospectively and to hold the government of the day to account, something I would not want to entrust to most of the elected MP's currently sitting in the Commons. How would having an elected Lords help in these two very important roles when the Lords would have to campaign for election and be embroiled in people pleasing in order to maintain their roles? I fear we would lose the quality we now have in favour of reforming the less problematic House of Parliament, I fear this is an attempt to divert attention away from true House of Commons reform.

Instead we need to think through reforming the electoral system of the Commons that is simply not working and is leading to disillusionment with our political system. Thankfully both Labour and the Lib Dems are talking about this too - and hopefully we will see a delivery of promises should either of these get into government on 6 May. The Conservatives, however, oppose reform of electoral system.

More debate needs to be taking place on this issue - and the wider one of constitutional reform - for it is going ahead according to partisan purposes and going mostly unnoticed to most of the wider public. For a specific Christian perspective on this click here for NT Wright's speech in Parliament. Very worthwhile the half an hour of your life it takes to read it.

A final (perhaps remarkably preposterous) thought on the potential of a Hung Parliament and why the British public don't take the warnings of the Party Leaders seriously on this issue: is it perhaps as a small piece of revenge to the chaos and corruption that the politicians have put the public through over the past few years? Maybe that's just a touch too cynical, but it certainly seems that the more the authorities say that a Hung Parliament will be disastrous for Britain, the more likely it appears to be heading that way.

Also, check in again on Thursday evening for more 'live-blogging' of the last election debate which will be live on BBC1 at 8.30pm.