TUC to consider electoral reform

TUC: An under reported but highly significant policy decision was made in one of the final debates of Congress. The PCS amendment to motion 83 on ‘democratic renewal’ (from the FDA civil service union) was carried on a show of hands.

The amendment stated that: ‘democratic renewal also requires elected politicians to be properly representative of, and accountable to, their constituents and therefore calls on the General Council to instigate a debate withinthe trade union movement on change in the current parliamentary electoral system towards a system of proportional representation.' http://www.congressvoices.org/2009/83-democratic-renewal/ This is a welcome development.

Only a minority in the hall voted either way which reflected theabsence of policy on this question in many affiliated unions including UNISON. It is now time for us to review the options for electoral reform basedon the empirical evidence from the use of PR and other alternative electoral systems in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and of coursein the ‘European Parliament’ elections.

Without question in Scotland and Wales PR has enabled minority partiesto lever in progressive social policies against the preferred pro-market policies of the New Labour Government. But on the other hand in the June European elections we witnessed the fascist BNP secure parliamentary representation in the North West and Yorkshire…

Let debate begin.