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Both Labour and the Conservatives are extended conurbations decades past their usefulness. They are fat, bloated and unwieldy. They encompass too broad a bandwidth of political opinion. And it is high time this ancient duopoly was broken up. If Brexit manages to achieve this on its own – and it very well may – that will be another cheer in its favour.
But even the forces of creative destruction unleashed by Brexit may not be enough to overcome the strict logic of Durverger’s law. This states that electoral systems like ours – in which voters have a single vote, cast for a single candidate, in a district where only one legislative seat is available – inevitably favour the overwhelming dominance of two parties. There are, within this set-up, no prizes for coming second. We’re left with the two fatbergs of the Labour and Conservative parties clogging up the Parliamentary plumbing. The only solvent that could possibly dissolve these bloated beasts is a form of Proportional Representation (PR).
I have never had much time for PR. The logic of FPTP works best with small constituencies, and PR – depending upon which version, of course – requires much larger ones. I like small constituencies because they preserve the romantic idea I have of an intimate link between a member of Parliament and the people who vote for them.
An MP should be responsive to the ordinary people who employ them, their constituents, and the idea of a MP tootling around their constituency, drinking in the pub, being seen on the bus etc – a bit like a vicar in his or her parish – preserves the directness of the connection between people and power. Indeed, one of the major reasons I am an enthusiastic Brexiter is because I hold that, as Tony Benn rightly insisted, constituents are an MP’s employers, and it is not for MPs to give away powers that have been lent to them at an election.
Power must be returned to the people undiluted when a new election is called. The gap between people and power must be as small as is practicable; power must not be ceded to some geographically distant body, like Brussels.
But I’m changing my mind about PR. As Brexit is showing, the two party system, as maintained by first past the post, is unable to capture the complexity of our political situation. The Conservative party is at least two parties – a pro-business, free market one and a one nation party that seeks to preserve traditional forms of community life. These parties face in very different directions not least because capitalism – the core ideology of the pro-business wing – is the greatest change agent the world has ever known. And thus frequently at odds with conserving traditional forms of life. I explored this tension in my UnHerd Confessions podcast with Roger Scruton.
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