A Progressive Alliance worked wonders in the Laleham and Shepperton Green ward of Spelthorne Borough Council in Surrey. It shows the power of electoral cooperation as featured in an article before the elections by West England Bylines. The LibDems endorsed the Greens who put out this leaflet. The local Labour Party privately decided not to […]
The number and range of Democratic System Failures in UK must be addressed to stop our slide into elective dictatorship.
Three examples in West England where Electoral Cooperation helped or could have helped progressive parties win more Council seats.
Ed: This article shows how electoral co-operation is being handled by opposition parties and is helping them gain seats in the West England region. A Momentous Agreement There has recently been a remarkable parting of the clouds in UK politics. For the past 100 years, we have been in the grip of a ‘winner takes […]
Mayors from across the country have written to the government to demand that they abandon plans to impose First Past the Post on their elections.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” One week in February 2022 captured the essence of the opening paragraph of Dickens’ masterpiece, A Tale of Two Cities. The contradictions of life in 18th century Paris and London, that Dickens considered his 19th century readers would identify with, are ever present […]
The Boundary Commission is hard at work, and the Tories expect to benefit – but will they?
I want to suggest that local ‘For Europe’ groups now have a vital role to play in taking steps to change the future. Change needs to start with individuals and at local parties, we don’t have to wait for a big national decision. This is my personal story of finding hope, purpose and direction after […]
Think back to 1 May 1997 and ‘the new dawn’. Finally, after 18 years of Tory control we had a Labour Government and a landslide victory. Now, 24 years later, we are faced with a hard-right Tory government that could possibly be in power for decades. Back in 1997 one of the first things that […]
Robert Key was the former Conservative MP for the City of Salisbury. He served under Margret Thatcher and John Major and continued to serve the city when the party was in opposition in the noughties. Just as West England Bylines asked the opposition parties to support Proportional Representation, Robert asks his Conservative Party to share […]
I love Brighton. It has its share of shabby corners and deprivation but it’s still a remarkable town. As I stood on the promenade at the Labour conference, armed with GetPRDone’s promotional material on Proportional Representation (PR), it struck me that Brighton could even be a metaphor for a brighter, progressive political future. Led in part by […]
However we might feel about the merits of Proportional Representation (PR), or electoral alliances, the likelihood – indeed certainty – is that we think that non-voting is a bad thing. The right to vote has been hard won, after all. Think of the Chartists and the Suffragettes. Surely we should exercise this right? And voting […]
As far as this article is concerned a ‘progressive’ is someone who – in this or any order – wants the UK to rejoin the EU; wants to save the planet from ecocide; unreservedly supports the NHS; believes that in a decent society the strong have a moral duty to support the weak (i.e. we […]
I’m finally able to get out again and I can get back to what I love, campaigning for Volt. I received my second Covid jab a little while ago and, although it gives me my freedom, I still check that I have my face mask with me when I leave the house. Fair voting will […]