It is the future way to deal with the unrepresentative FPTP ! Who knows , it may be better than PR ! I hope it is adopted across the nation to keep extreme party’s like reform & the tories away from power so that reasonable people can be installed into governance for the good of the citizens that they are meant to serve & not the extreme minority’s interests !
It may well be better than PR. PR is subject to big money, slogans and national nonsense far far more than an exhaustive candidate scrutiny. Just have a look at some of the chaotic conspiracy touting right-wing parties that are doing so well in Europe, that shows the danger of PR.
"It is the future way to deal with the unrepresentative FPTP ! Who knows , it may be better than PR !" Absolutely NOT @marksykes5434 Primaries are merely a stop gap measure to counter the insidious anti-democratic influence of FPTP - unless and until FPTP is dumped (permanently) and replaced with something half decent - my strong preference being STV in multi-member constituencies, the UK cannot claim membership of the grown up democracies club!
@@peterdavidson3268 I agree with you & we definitely need change asap but if your sat on your hands hoping for electoral reform soon , especially when Labour get a massive majority , then get comfortable !
@@marksykes5434 1. I am NOT sat on my hands - I am an active member of the democratic renewal community (Unlock Democracy, Electoral Reform Society, Compass, Make Votes Matter, etc. etc.) and have been for years, and years and years.......... 2. I am NOT expecting anything but a huge Labour majority, post 2024 election - sadly that's what FPTP is designed to do, ie. maintain the status quo, in terms of the system itself. That reality is perhaps indicated by the frustration evident in my comments here - once again, the system will protect itself from major upheaval. Just 18 months ago, the UK looked set fair for a hung Parliament result but then the Tories repeatedly hit the self destruct button, followed by the SNP north of the border, effectively handing the next election result on a plate to Starmer & Co - thus the best opportunity in decades for real and lasting change in Britain evaporated!
Sadly, although the Labour voter featured here is saying all the right things, the party (hierachy) he supports declined to participate in the South Devon Primary process, full stop - in fact, if any Labour Party member even officially acknowledged the process, they risked expulsion!
Yes, it's disappointing they've taken this position. But fortunately these party tribalists form a very small minority of Labour supporters. Almost everyone we speak to is very happy to back Caroline Voaden, the winner of the process. There's so much more that unites us than divides us, and voting out the corrupt Conservative government comes first.
@@SouthDevonPrimary-sk5zu But the Labour candidate will still be on the ballot paper and actively campaigning, thus drawing votes away from Caroline Voaden? South Devon is now showing up as a very tight three way marginal; CON : LD ; LAB, so every "lost" vote could be pivotal - this contest may end up as another progressive tragedy where an overwhelming progressive majority is split down the middle, allowing a Conservative candidate to hang on by the back door, elected on less than a third of all votes cast?
@@marksykes5434 I agree with the broad aim of removing the Tories - reducing them to third party also ran status would be a delicious irony. Yes, of course the voting system for the 2024 General Election [GE] will be FPTP but my ideal result would see Labour finish with about 300 seats, ie. short of a single party majority, thus requiring some form of accommodation with other "progressive" parties to form the incoming administration - I do NOT mean formal coalition - I do mean some form of supply & confidence arrangement. The price of that "accommodation" would be Labour, in tandem with other participating parties, signing up, in advance and unequivocally (that bit is vital), to establish and accept/implement ALL proposals emanating from a Citizens' Convention - that is a UK-wide Constitutional Convention founded on a Citizens' Assembly platform. This mechanism would effectively remove political parties per se from controlling and directing any Constitutional Reform process and put citizens themselves, in the form of a legitimate proxy acting on their behalf, in the driving seat of long overdue, radical and profound change - to transform Britain into a modern, 21st century European democracy! Sadly, it seems FPTP will deliver its default design result this Autumn (my best guess for the date of the GE is Thursday 17th October) and Labour will end up with a very large single party majority - yes, they will undo much of criminally corrupt socio-economic damage inflicted by the Tories over the last 14 years but what they won't do is transform Britain, permanently and irrevocably.
@@peterdavidson3268 Yes I agree to a point , Labour look set for a landslide victory , which does nothing for democracy, this is caused by a lack of interest from the public generally in politics , which I think is deliberately managed . The idea of reform is what is the scariest for me & if the Labour Party has to rely on them to get things passed then I’ll take the Labour super majority all day long & just hope that voting reform can be pushed up the agenda sharpish !
