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13 hours ago
8
The sudden apparent collapse in support for Labour witnessed in Thursday’s elections was perhaps not unexpected. While long predicted, it has taken many years for multi-party politics to become a reality here. The main cause would appear to be our winner-takes-all voting system, whose demise should surely now be inevitable.
Last year it delivered a massive majority for a Labour party that won barely a third of the vote, as it has often delivered Tory majorities in the past. So, whatever its mistakes, Labour still has quite a bit of time to turn things around. Besides, with turnouts nearer to 30% rather than 40%, par for the course in local elections, talk of revolution might be a little premature.
My main concern is the local elections, where a large number of inexperienced councillors may have won seats. They will probably face a steep learning curve in order to deliver effectively. It’s not the colour of your rosette that will be important. It’s what, if anything, is between your ears.
John Marriott
Lincoln
After the Runcorn byelection, might it finally dawn on Labour’s leaders that voters who like the policies and tone of Reform UK will vote Reform UK, and those who don’t are unlikely to vote for a kind of “Reform lite”, which is what Labour is fast becoming? Its turquoise social media ads and its macho talk of being “tough” on illegal immigrants haemorrhage voters to the Lib Dems and Greens, in a mirror image of what is happening to the Conservatives. But “the threat from Reform” will no doubt be what Morgan McSweeney will focus on, and the third and final Labour majority government of my lifetime will deliver as much fundamental, much-needed change as the previous two.
Michael Woodgate
Bristol
We urgently need a more proportional result for elections to the House of Commons as well as for local, mayoral and other elections. This is the core mission of Make Votes Matter, a cross-party organisation which campaigns for a fair vote for every member of our society. At present, just one-third of voters chose Labour, yet the party secured 63% of the seats in the House of Commons and, with that, 100% of governing power.
Factoring in the record low turnout of 59%, this means fewer than a third of eligible voters actively support the current government. The result is a system in which over two-thirds of the adult population are effectively unrepresented. That isn’t democratic – and it certainly isn’t fair. And fairness matters. Most British people have an innate sense of it; when it’s missing, it’s no surprise that some voters turn to more extreme alternatives in frustration. A proportional system wouldn’t just deliver fairer outcomes, it would also help foster more compassionate, consistent and competent politics.
Susanna Dammann
Chair, Make Votes Matter
Winning candidates usually pledge to repay the electorate through their future endeavours in post with a humble commitment to service. Dame Andrea Jenkyns instead vocalises her wish for asylum seekers to sleep in tents. To delight in that thought demonstrates the most malevolent kind of schadenfreude. The title “Dame” confers honour and is one that many would be thrilled to uphold. If Jenkyns doesn’t meet King Charles’s “very best of humanity” standard, she should have the decency to rescind it.
Mona Sood
Southend-on-Sea, Essex
The main issues influencing voters are poverty, low-paid jobs, and poor achievement in an education system based on academic prowess. Historians will look back and compare the plight of low-paid or unemployed workers to those in Germany, which led to the rise of Hitler. Nigel Farage exploits people’s basest fears to further his own personal grab for power.
Linda Karlsen
Whitstable, Kent
It was Blair wot won it.
Alastair Wallace
Birmingham
