Obligatory post-election post
So, the votes have been cast and most of them have been counted, and we definitely have a hung Parliament, although disappointingly the Tories are the biggest single party and the Lib Dems have pledged to support the biggest single party. Still, it showed a whole lot of faults with our election system, with hundreds of people across the country being denied a vote because they didn't make it to the front of the queue before 10pm, and someone I know not getting a vote because his attempt to register to vote online failed. What century are we living in?
OK, first of all, the no-vote scandal last night: in Hackney, as well as several cities in the north, people still queuing at 10pm were shut out of the polling station despite having waited for hours in the rain (in Lewisham, there was an illegal extra half-hour). This was blamed on understaffed polling stations, but surely the solution for this is to hold elections at the weekend or to make the polling day a public holiday — that should not have been necessary this time, as Monday was a bank holiday. The reason many people could not vote is because they had to fit voting into their day alongside work, picking their kids up and cooking dinner, etc, while retirees, for example, don't have to do this. Have the poll on a day when most people are not working and you distribute voting more evenly through the day.
It's probably not a good idea to have the poll at the weekend, because it will interfere with some religious voters (Jews and stricter Christians, in particular). But it's ridiculous that people are losing out on votes for this reason. Blind voters have also been disenfranchised because the tactile templates they had to use to vote weren't the same size as the actual ballot papers and voters were misled into putting their crosses on the wrong place on the ballot paper and thus spoiling their votes. Also, some people I know tried to register to vote online, but their registration failed to get through for some reason and thus they got no vote.
Honestly, we're meant to be living in a modern democracy. A big part of our problem is that our democracy just grew, rather than actually being thought out. The "cross on the sheet" thing came from a time when most voters weren't literate or well-educated. The "first past the post" system came from a time when the Commons wasn't the major law-making body. It's defended by the Tories and much of the Labour party because, when they are in power, they usually really are in power without having to compromise with anyone. Proportional representation would change that.
There's no point saying that it would help the likes of the BNP, given that decent mobilisation in east London resulted in them losing all their council seats, and the incumbent Labour MP (who has seen a few scandals of her own) increasing her majority rather than having it reduced, as so many other Labour MPs did even in safe seats. There is one small extremist party it would definitely not help, however, which is Sinn Fein. SF won five seats in Northern Ireland, and they have a policy of not taking their seats in Parliament because it would involve swearing allegiance to the Queen (other MPs get around this by crossing their fingers behind their back or announcing that they don't mean it and only take the oath so they can serve those who elected them). You can see where they won on this map, but it includes a huge chunk of the province from the south-west to the centre, plus West Belfast.
Now, if people want an MP who won't represent them in Parliament, that's their prerogative, but if a Sinn Fein candidate wins the biggest single proportion of votes in any given constituency, but less than 50%, that means most people voted for someone who will actually sit. In two of the five seats, Sinn Fein did get an overall majority, but not in the other three. With a system of PR that involves multi-member constituencies, that region of Ireland will at least get some MPs who will do their job and be a representative (of course, that might result in Sinn Fein MPs being elected in other areas, but those constituencies will have a few proper MPs as well. Why is an entire region allowed to go unrepresented when it's part of the UK? Similar to this is the absurdity of keeping the Speaker as a constituency MP, when they elected him or her originally as a party MP. How is he supposed to represent anyone given that he is supposed to be neutral?
Of course, there were good things that came out of this as well. The biggest was that the British National Party suffered big losses in east London, with Nick Griffin polling only 14.6% of the vote, down 1.7% on 2005, and losing all their seats on the borough's council. Of course, in neighbouring the Dagenham and Rainham constituency, Michael Barnbrook won 11.2%, increasing the BNP's share by 6.8% compared to 2005. The Barking news was presented as a wipe-out for the BNP, but I'd hardly call that share of the vote a wipe-out.
I am also comfortable with George Galloway losing his latest attempt to contest a seat in east London. There was no potential for an anti-war protest vote and the Respect party has long since fallen apart, but I would have hoped that Muslims could have mobilised against Jim Fitzpatrick who made a big fuss about the segregation at a Muslim wedding at which he was a guest, causing yet another anti-Muslim media witch hunt. Galloway has proven that he has nothing much to offer people in east London, as he will not turn up much in Parliament despite taking a Parliamentary salary. I was disappointed that Salma Yaqoob didn't win in Birmingham; it is notable that none of the male Muslim MPs elected has a beard and none of the women wears hijab, and all are of Asian background.
Anyway, now that we have a hung Parliament, we are looking at the serious possibility of a Tory-Lib Dem coalition, and I do know that an awful lot of Lib Dem voters won't be happy with that — many of us are people who voted (or would have voted) Labour if they were still Labour. I don't know what the two parties have in common but I do know that electoral reform is not part of it. I also know that the fanatical pro-Americanism and pro-Israelism and the Christian-right fringe in the Tory party don't appeal to Lib Dems either. I can't imagine that many Lib Dem MPs will be willing to serve in a Tory government, so Cameron might well still end up with a minority government, perhaps ruling with the support of the right-wing of Labour and perhaps the DUP. It's a depressing thought.
