The last paragraph just about sums it all up.
The choice is Labour’s, to go on trying to secure narrow, shallow and occasional FPTP victories on policies only acceptable to those who want nothing to change, especially on climate, or mobilise and build the progressive majority that exists in our country. Infrequent, weak single party government or strong progressive alliances most of the time? The flick of a switch in terms of how we count votes is a game changer for progressives and the planet.
I don’t want a system that relies on the least worst option. This system is low hanging fruit for abusive regimes with a war chest to spend on campaigns.
Those people didn’t learn the lesson of 2019; do not write a manifesto covering loads of seemingly disparate issues.
The cool kids in the room, of which I very much am one, understand the connection between voting systems and under-representation, because it was part of our initiation in to the cool kids club. Unfortunately most people have better things to do with their lives than study to pass that exam, so it isn’t clear. It’s a failure of the cool kids to communicate that connection simply and correctly.
Or to put it another way, electoral reform underpins everything, but it’s feels both very abstract, and like the people who are promoting it are trying to change to rules of game, because they can’t currently win. And tbh, there is a lot of truth in that, even if the current rules are massively unfair.