Book Reviews

How to Win an Election

A timely book for study is How to Win an Election by LCER’s own Paul Richards. First published in 2001, this “fully updated and packed with new material” edition, is available for anyone wanting to know how to plan and organise, formulate the message and communicate it to the electorate, deal with the opposition, identify and avoid potential banana skins, whatever election we have in mind. Paul deals with “the problems of democracy” under four headings: voter switch-off, dumbing down, the crooked electoral system and the democratic deficit. His chapter on “the nine tribes of politics” reminds us that politics is a minority sport. Paul had an important role in extending the remit of the Plant Commission to cover the voting system for the House of Commons back in Labour’s 1990 Blackpool Conference. It is good to read him arguing still that: “First-past-the-post delivers governments with majorities on the basis of a minority of the votes. In 1978, Lord Hailsham spoke of an “elective dictatorship” to describe the phenomenon of parties with minorities of the vote enjoying majorities of the seats in the House of Commons. He was referring to the Labour government of James Callaghan, but the majority of voters voted against Margaret Thatcher throughout the 1980s, yet she won three elections in a row.”

Paul concludes: “So for 77 years out of 150, first-past-the-post has delivered coalitions and unstable governments” despite the supporter of FPTPers for strong governments. Paul’s insight into the effect on local government bears thinking about as local government in England comes under scrutiny as Scotland elects its councillors by Single Transferable Vote. “First-past-the-post also works at the local level to skew the results of local council elections. Many councils are virtually one-party states although other parties receive sizeable numbers of votes, because the number of councils seats does not reflect the proportion of the votes received. In local government first-past-the-post delivers not strong administrations but arrogant, unaccountable, lazy and unchallenged majority groups.” And one might add some Labour councils who have realised that their overwhelming majority does not help Labour’s causes or democracy itself. Thank you for keeping the faith, Paul.

Politico’s Guide to the General Election 2005

If you are still searching for a constituency to get involved in during the election campaign, or need convincing about how vital your activism is to your local Labour party, then researching your region’s seats in Simon Henig and Lewis Baston’s Guide to the General Election 2005 is essential. This book should serve as an invaluable tool over the coming month for amateur psephologists, party activists and electoral reform campaigners alike, indeed for anyone interested in following the election. Henig and Baston profile 200 marginal constituencies and also explore the regional and national context and trends behind these contests. The book is written in the same authoritative yet highly accessible style that has characterised the authors’ previous collaborations. So the liberal sprinkling of anecdotes, trivia and subtle put downs of non-favoured locations continues. The chapter on by-elections is a particular highlight.

Yet, there is much serious analysis too, quite a chunk of it related in one way or another to the electoral system, perhaps not surprising as Lewis Baston is also the ERS research officer. In the ‘party prospects’ section, the extent of the electoral bias is discussed in some detail. Labour’s good performances in middle class marginals from 1992 is contrasted with their drop in support in their heartland seats, to leave a situation where they could be re-elected with only 35-38 per cent of the vote, a total number of votes lower than any government has achieved since the 1920s and on par, and maybe even worse, than Labour’s 1983 electoral disaster. One aspect that is not tackled directly is the fact that, were the UK to change to a more proportional system, the authors would be commenting on the 646 contests that really matter rather than the 200 at present.

Henig and Baston also engage in some fascinating musings on the fate of tactical voting at this election, and go through the different permutations and likely threat posed. The danger to Labour from an increased vote on its left flank, of its own erstwhile supporters switching either to the Lib Dems or a minor party to the left, letting in the Tories, even when the latter’s vote has not increased at all, or allowing the Lib Dems to take the seat, is quite a feature. Those constituencies which “have a relatively high concentration of students, Muslims or the liberal-left”, including Bristol West, Cambridge, several North London seats, many of the University seats, are at particular risk. This situation is slightly perverse as often these type of constituencies have thoughtful, locally effective, pro-electoral reform Labour MPs who would be a real loss to the campaign and to the Parliamentary Labour party if they were voted out.

In his book, So Now Who Do We Vote For?, John Harris muses insightfully and often amusingly over the universal dilemma of squaring ones ideals and values with the political realities of the day and the party one shares most affinity with. He is specifically looking at this dilemma from his own perspective, as a Labour party member and activist since his formative political years during the height of Thatcherism. Harris takes issue with some of the key policies and decisions of Labour’s second term. What follows though is not an unremittingly negative portrayal of New Labour. Instead, he sets off on a political journey, interviewing politicians from different traditions of the party and from other parties, in an attempt to weigh up their competing policies, strategies and electoral efficacy. For wavering voters, Harris has done the political equivalent of the supermarket slogan: ‘we’ve gone further so you don’t have to’.

John Harris also presents a persuasive argument in favour of electoral reform. In responding to the challenge he set himself in the book’s title, Harris finds that “at least part of the answer might lie in an electoral system that has turned hideously dysfunctional. … If one of the more bizarre effects of the first-past-the-past system is a politics tied to Tory-leaning swing voters, PR for Westminster could be reasonably expected to open things up”. Indeed, in his view, “the political landscapes of Scotland and Wales are at least partly traceable to the fact that the views of those who sit to the left of the modern Labour party actually count”. Harris ends his book on a note of optimism and a call to action: “if votes were finally reflected in seats, the anti-war, pro-public sector, progressive voters recurrently ignored by our politicians might actually exercise a powerful influence on government.” We obviously welcome readers of Harris’ book to take up this call, join LCER and get involved in our electoral reform campaign.

However there was another, more immediate, action that Harris had in mind too: tactical voting at the forthcoming General Election. In his book, he discusses the opportunities and dangers that such an act entails. One the one hand, as one politician interviewed commented, it amounts to “a rough and ready form of proportional representation: you’re skipping your first preference and going straight to the second”. But, on the other hand, “our creaking electoral system is particularly cruel to anyone wanting to vote against the Labour party from the left. You might resolve to jump one way; simultaneously droves of Daily Mail readers may well leap in the other direction, rendering your gesture of protest irrelevant and allowing your constituency to be hailed as the new bastion of Howard-ism.”

Harris offers the following advice to would-be tactical voters: “local circumstances are everything. If you share the kind of beliefs that pervade this book, there are a large number of Labour MPs who still deserve your support. In Labour/Tory marginals … and in places where Labour is running a close second to the Tories ... voting Labour will probably be obligatory: the race really is between Tony Blair and Michael Howard”. Elsewhere, however, Harris is keener to recommend other courses of action: voting Lib Dem in the constituencies where they are in control or challenging the Tories; and voting anything other than Labour in Labour’s heartland seats … “to give the Blairites a jolt [which] can be delivered without fear of handing any accidental fillip to the Tories”. Whatever your opinion on his voting advice, Harris has done an excellent job of exposing the vagaries and democratic deficit at the heart of the current electoral system and in calling for change.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Alexandra Runswick, Parliamentary and Policy Officer of the New Politics Network, writes:

The New Politics Network have just published a new pamphlet looking at the impact of the Report of the Joint Consultative Committee on Constitutional Reform co-chaired by Robin Cook and Robert Maclennan. Looking Back, Looking Forward: The Cook-Maclennan Agreement, Eight Years On examines the significance of this compact between the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties on the eve of the 1997 General Election and the prospects for further constitutional reform.

The authors explore both what has been achieved in the last eight years and what still needs to be done. They both agree on three broad priorities for constitutional change: House of Lords Reform; the introduction of a more proportional voting system for Westminster and the establishment of a written constitution for the United Kingdom. Robin Cook in his interview also tackles the need for political parties to be more open, less concerned with internal discipline and based on a clear value system. Robert Maclennan identifies the need to tackle the power of the Executive and deal with the royal prerogative. Overall this pamphlet celebrates how far we have come, but is sober in looking at how far we still have to travel. The pamphlet comprises an interview with Rt Hon Robin Cook MP and an article by Lord Maclennan of Rogart. The appendix includes a full copy of their 1997 report. Copies are £7.50 (free to New Politics Network members) and are available from the Network: info@new-politics.net / 020 7278 4443.