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| Action from one of many anti-government protests in Westminster (Image: alwaght.com) |
Who represents the Conservative Party? How many Labour Parties are there currently in the Houses of Parliament? The Liberal what? Right now, the British party system is in crisis, and however way the UK leaves the European Union, the three main Westminster groups will never be the same.
It's difficult to really get to the bottom this mess. The Conservatives start 2019 on the sourest of notes. The recent EU deal vote totally humiliated Prime Minister Theresa May and has completely split the Tories. Regardless of how the vote went, the Party's MPs who want Britain to Remain in the EU are fearing the worst and think their former allies - the Tory 'Brexiteers' - are to blame. Meanwhile, the Leave MPs from the Conservatives think May's days are numbered and this vote only will strengthen their current stance.
The problem with the Tory Leave campaigners' wish is that their Party's members have no idea who they want to succeed May. The Leave voters would love Boris Johnson or Michael Gove but their leadership ploy may backfire with Remain MPs Amber Rudd and Jeremy Hunt favoured. There isn't really a Tory MP who can truly unite these disengaged members, and it will only take the EU-exit debate dying down for the Party to choose a leader that can heal deep wounds.
You'd like to assume that the Conservatives crumbling would result in Labour thriving and uniting towards glory. Have you seen any pigs fly recently? While I truly believe the Party is in a better position than in 2017 - when the last general election took place - they are in no fit state to form a government of their own. So you could only imagine how I felt upon hearing leader Jeremy Corbyn is calling for a general election to 'break Brexit deadlock'.
This is typical of Corbyn to want another bleeding general election. To him, all roads lead to them. Campaigning and knocking people's doors are what he enjoys doing the most. He would call for a general election every six months if he could, even if he was in power. But he has to deal with the fact that Europe is splitting Labour into at least four pieces (small group of Leavers, Corbyn loyalists, pro-Keir Starmer strategists, People's Vote camp and those biting their tongues and voted for the current EU deal in order to avoid a 'no deal' scenario). Not only that, but the anti-Semitism debate on social media is burning a hole in Labour's credibility as a Party of pure tolerance, with once avid supporters dissociating themselves away from the party in red.
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| Jeremy Hunt, Boris Johnson and David Cameron (Image: Zimbio) |
I do warn Corbyn away from wanting a general election and urge him to wait until 2022, when the next general election is due to take place. Labour fall in this trap every time - they try anything to gain power, regardless of who their leader is. Rushing to picking up the keys of 10 Downing Street will do them more harm than good. Right now, their front bench is in a totally different page to their back bench - not just in terms of Europe, but also regarding domestic issues too, such as nationalisation and public spending.
You'd like to think with the Tories and Labour reaching breaking point that Westminster party number three would enjoy a surge in popularity, but the Liberal Democrats are still hibernating. Caroline Lucas of the Green Party is arguably doing a better job articulating policy issues in a way that we can actually take her Party seriously. She has a mission to take the Greens mainstream. Quite honestly, Lucas can do it with her eyes shut if her Party would delve a little deeper into their campaign budget. She is doing so well, I can almost forgive her for voting alongside Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg against the government's EU deal.
What point am I trying to prove here? Faithful readers of my blog may recall me arguing that we should ditch party politics all together, which I still stand by. However, perhaps there is a way to put party politics in good stead, thus making the electoral system work for everyone.
It has been often discussed that the voting system in the UK isn't working. Parties can receive a million votes yet gain just one MP. This is completely disproportionate and you can see why voters are angered by the current system. This is why I think it should change in a completely radical way - one that's not really been explored before. It's time we adopted the US system, but better.
In the States, voters put an 'X' next to a representative of their preferred party and a separate 'X' beside the name of their desired President. So they can vote for, say, the Democrats and Donald Trump in the same go - although, you can imagine this being a rare occurrence.
This system is ahead of its time. The civil wars declared within the Democrats and Republican Party are laid bare with an often tight leadership contest, followed by a brutal race to the White House. The Presidential candidates almost act like independents as they represent themselves more than they do their party, giving voters the freedom to vote for both ideals (party Senate) and personality (President). This is something the UK desperately needs right now. Jeremy Corbyn may not be the cup of tea for many Labour members, but they can still vote for the Party and - for instance - Caroline Lucas as Prime Minister. I'm sure she won't mind.
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| US ballot system (Image: Japan Times) |
What makes my idea an improvement to the current US system is that the final outcome will be completely fair. In the States' 2016 election, Trump had nearly three million votes fewer than Hillary Clinton yet won because he gained popularity in the larger states. I'd change that because no region should receive preferential treatment based on its size or population. Not only that, but for each Party candidate in each constituency that receives at least 35 percent of the vote would have a place in the Commons as MP. So we could have nearly 1,000 Parliament members but from a wide spectrum of parties. If a candidate comes a close second place in your constituency, they're still a winner.
The only flaw is that the nation's preferred Prime Minister could inherit a Parliament where the majority of politicians aren't from their Party. That is a small price to pay. If you have good policies, MPs will sign up to it, regardless of who they represent. And the Prime Minister can always appoint ministers and secretaries of his or her choosing and they don't have to be from their Party either. Wouldn't it be great to have a Labour Health Secretary and, say, a Green Party Environment Secretary, at the same time?
It is simple - politics in the UK must change and it's heading to a direction at the moment where colleagues are stabbing each other at the front. Even once-respected Speaker John Bercow, who is partly responsible for bringing things in order at the Commons, is placed in the slaughterhouse for practically anything. If any MPs read this, please stop the infighting and treat Parliament as a place of logical discussion rather than a nursery playground from hell.
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