British Politics Has Just Gone Continental
A New Multi-Party Political System Is About To Emerge in Britain!
The British political landscape has begun to resemble that of the European Continent.
Forget about who actually won the most seats to the British Parliament in the 4 July 2024 elections. The big new is not the collapse of the Tory Party nor the landslide victory of the Labour Party. A landslide does not mean very much if all it takes is a third of the popular vote to gain nearly two- third of the seats in Parliament.
The really big news is that the historically rooted two party system that dominated British politics from the 19th century onwards appears to have reached its demise. For decades and decades, it was all about the two main parliamentary parties slogging it out with each other. Labour and the Conservatives possessed a virtual monopoly over the management of Britain’s electoral system. Other parties remained marginalised. The electoral system ensured that even if a party like the Greens or UKIP won millions of votes it counted for next to nothing.
Thanks to the extraordinary disintegration of the Conservative Party it looks as if there is an unprecedented opportunity for new parties to make serious headway in the future. It is still a grossly unrepresentative electoral system but the fact that the recently established Reform Party managed to win 5 parliamentary seats is hugely significant. Reform won 14.3 per cent of the popular vote. That may not sound all that much. But then we live in a world where the 33 per cent of the vote achieved by Labour was sufficient to be described by journalist as the basis for a landslide.
Reform’s success in terms of gaining parliamentary seats may be classified as modest. But its capacity to convince over 4 million citizens to give it their vote serves as advanced warning that populist politics have established an important presence in Britain. In the past third parties were often dismissed as protest movements who would never pose a serious electoral threat. That was the past, when the two main political parties still possessed a degree of authority. Today these parties are running on empty – living on borrowed time. Ultimately their survival is contingent on the maintenance of an unfair electoral system that distorts the will of the electorate.
Now is the time to launch a campaign for a referendum on the future of Britain’s electoral system. A campaign for a referendum on the desirability of adopting a system of proportional representation could galvanise millions of people, who wish to find their voice. A campaign that gives meaning to democracy will inspire millions of citizens with hope.
But one word of warning. I can already hear alarmist noises about the threat posed by the populist politics of Reform. Soon the mainstream media will go into overdrive to demonise Reform as a racist, homophobic quasi-fascistic, far right party. They will do their best to marginalise a movement that refuses to play by their rules. Now is the time to respond to their politics of fear with that of the politics of solidarity and hope.
Frank Füredi
