Friday, July 17, 2009

Tory report recommends PR for Second Chamber

Just a few months ago, David Cameron was comprehensively (and wrongly) shredding the idea of proportional representation in the Evening Standard. So it is interesting that today two of his most senior MPs are advocating Proportional Representation for a mainly elected Second Chamber:

We favour a system of Proportional Representation for elections to the chamber. We
believe that the First past the post system, with its ability to deliver clear party majorities,
works well for the Commons and entrenches its role as the source of legitimacy for a
government; however, the second chamber requires a demonstrably different system

Elections for the chamber should be on the basis of the regions that are used for
European elections, although the electoral system should favour greater voter choice than
a pure party list approach. Large electoral areas, coupled with the use of a long, nonrenewable term, will reduce the danger of members of the second chamber encroaching
on MPs’ constituency work and thereby diluting their own revision and scrutiny role.

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