Thursday 31 July 2014

Tories do not support first past the post

It is not easy for voters to make a choice between the Labour party and a purportedly right-wing party which is opposed to democracy. The first-past-the-post system is anti-democratic which means that it restricts choice for voters. Since freedom of choice is associated with capitalism and right-wing policies it is transparently hypocritical for a party on the right to reject proportional representation. For the Tories to reject pr is a kind of electoral denialism which makes voting for them difficult.

If the Tories chose to support a proportional system of voting it is likely they would be able to attract voters who find it hard (and contradictory) to vote for a party which rejects democracy. But if they do not support pr then Labour will win because people who are right-wing will find it difficult to accept the logic of choice in the financial market but not at the ballot box. In the long term the Tories as the party of the right will not win fptp elections and their only possibility to gain office is if they reject fptp for pr.

If the Tories support pr then even in opposition they will be able to influence policy such that even if Labour retain their anti-democracy position the voting system will change from fptp. Given that Tories lose under fptp it is only logical for true Tories to reject fptp for pr.

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