Flickr/ William Murphy. Some rights reserved.For a long time it’s been clear that Britain’s first past the post voting system is hugely damaging for our democracy. But a new study has just shown that it’s damaging for our finances too – and poses big risks when it comes to corruption.
Councils dominated by single parties could be wasting as much as £2.6bn a year through a lack of scrutiny of their procurement processes, according to a University of Cambridge analysis for the Electoral Reform Society.
Some of these local ‘one-party states’ – a product of our winner-takes-all voting system - could be getting away with poor practice when it comes to procurement, with little opposition in council chambers to point it out.
