The Government consultation on electoral reform hasn't even been launched, but already it seems ministers are pre-judging the debate and narrowing the range of options. It's especially disappointing to see Justice Minister Michael Wills, who gamely fought for deliberative elements in Brown's Governance of Britain programme supported by OK's Anthony Barnett, contributing to the growing perception that the whole thing's a stitch up. In a response to a question on voting reform in the House of Commons on Tuesday Wills criticised PR and lauded the current system:
I emphasise that proportional systems tend inherently to produce coalition Governments. That may be a good thing for some parties, but it might not be a good thing for the country. First-past-the-post systems tend to produce clear majority winners and stable government. Although they tend to hand power to the biggest minority, the practice of forming coalition Governments often tends to hand power to the smallest minority. There is nothing inherently fair about that.
He went along with a Tory MP who said that PR would let in "poisonous extremists" (ignorIng the inconvenient truth it's voters and not the system that lets in the BNP) and was approving of some utterly ridiculous comments by Labour MP Ken Purchase who took the classic establishment line that only "chattering classes" care about this debate and that "First past the post is the only sensible system" and we should therefore "do away with the flim-flam of proportional representation, which seems to take up an inordinate amount of time compared with other important matters" (in fact the latest poll shows, contra Purchase, that 61% of voters support a binding referendum on PR against 24%)
Having gone along with these hoary attempts to shut down debate on PR and had a few pops of his own, the Minister assured the House it would be the voters of this country who decide which is the best and most legitimate system, and not party politicians. Hm based on this performance you'll forgive me for saying I'll believe it when I see it!
