Publisher's Synopsis
Prompted by concerns about the problems of social cohesion which our country now faces, the threats to our society and the disconnect between Parliament and people, this well-informed, compelling and deeply thoughtful book discusses how best to repair our troubled democracy, strengthening the all-important links between the people and those who represent them. It presents the case for gentle reforms to our electoral system, based on the principle of Total Representation (TR). These would preserve the UK's precious constituency system intact but add a limited, sensitively judged element of proportionality so as to mitigate the troublesome side-effects of pure constituency systems and provide appropriate representation in Parliament for all members of the electorate while avoiding the perils of proportional representation systems. In the House of Commons, Constituency MPs would continue to be elected, and to serve their constituents, exactly as now. But a limited number of Party MP seats would be allocated in addition to individual Parties in proportion to the -wasted- votes cast for each of them, thus encouraging all members of the electorate to vote, ensuring a fairer representation of political minorities and more faithfully aligning the balance of MPs in Parliament with the balance of voters in the country. Millions more people would feel for the first time that their voices can be heard. The book advocates use of the same TR principles to elect a sensitively reformed, elected House of Lords and Party Leaders. Acknowledging that agreement on such reforms is never easy, the authors suggest that as a first step Parliament should promptly establish a new Independent Commission with a remit to review the problems which presently beset our democratic institutions and electoral system, to assess possible solutions such as those discussed in this book, and to report back within a year. Agreed reforms could then be implemented alongside the planned reduction in the number of constituencies ahead of the probable date of the next General Election.
