The likelihood of Britain adopting a fairer and more efficient electoral system in the near future remains low. As the late Roy Jenkins ruefully conceded in his 1998 report on the voting system, it is only when political parties lack power that they are willing to consider reforms that might result in its fairer distribution. Tony Blair’s unexpectedly decisive victory in 1997 thus put the cause of proportional representation (PR) back for a decade or so.
Yet Blair is no longer the invincible politician that he was when Jenkins completed his review. Although Labour is still likely to win an overall majority on 5th May, a hung parliament is not inconceivable. And if Blair were to find himself able to govern only with the consent of the Liberal Democrats, PR would move into the category of the politically thinkable.
Blair’s personal fall from grace is one reason why electoral reform is again a possibility. But there is a deeper reason. During most of the post-1945 period, Britain’s main parties were so far apart on fundamental issues that co-operation was difficult to secure. Labour did not fully accept the market economy until the 1990s. Yet the political bandwidth has since contracted sharply, not just in the field of economic management but in public policy generally (with the one big exception of Britain’s relations with the EU).
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