Despite finishing a distant 3rd (in terms of seats), the Liberal Democrats are currently wielding more power than Labour, as it is up to them whether to form a coalition with the Conservatives, and on what terms that coalition might be formed.
There have been hints at electoral reform from all sides, and a move to
proportional representation might be on the cards, as it would undoubtedly benefit Lib Dem in future elections.
There have also been warnings that PR would have given the far-right a lot of clout in Westminster - something like 30 seats (between UKIP and the BNP) versus 6 or 7 for the Green party, for example. Although the plural of anecdote isn't data, tweets
like this show people are worried about the disruptive effect those extreme conservatives could have:
Why I don't want PR: today, the BNP would have 20 seats, UKIP 23, we'd have a hung parliament and the Tories would be negotiating with them.
Aside: searching twitter for UKIP, BNP and PR is interesting:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=ukip+bnp+pr However, I completely disagree with that argument, for a number of reasons.
Firstly, as
Ben Goldacre says, "they're despicable, but they're citizens". Every political group obviously has a tendency to regard their position and policies as superior, but we cannot be so arrogant as to disenfranchise people we disagree with. The idea of using electoral procedure to silence a large swathe of the population should be abhorrent to us.
Secondly, the difficulty those extreme parties have had in gaining representation in Westminster plays into their hands to some extent, as it allows them to paint themselves as the scrappy, plucky, ugly underdog that would have succeeded if it wasn't for The Man setting unfair rules. Decades of Disney films have inured us to sympathise with that position.
Lastly, but most importantly: between them, UKIP and the BNP got
5% of the vote nationally. That's an enormous number, and is way, way up compared to the last election. The fact that their policies are so distasteful to us, and yet so popular in certain areas and in certain demographics shows us there's clearly something going on that we don't understand. And they are not all brainwashed morons; they're not all unable to comprehend the liberal viewpoint: they just choose not to buy into it.
As
Noam Chomsky said, these are real people with real grievances, and the only politicians effectively communicating with them, and giving them an outlet to channel their disenchantment into, is the far-right.
These are real people, and
their viewpoint is just as valid as yours; if it comes from a position of ignorance, it is because the media and the major political parties have not done anything like a good enough job to show them viable alternatives. We are ignorant of their environment and their pressures.
We shouldn't be hoping to silence or ignore these voters, and we can't afford to ridicule them for the views they hold because disenfranchisement, either real or imagined, is what leads to true extremism. There's already over 1.5 million people in that category, and it's growing fast.
