BEACHCOMBER
102 YEARS OLD AND STILL ELECTORALLY INNOVATIVE...
CORRECT me if I am wrong, but I sense that a general election is in the wind. Sadly, the people who organise these things have not initiated the changes I recommended a few years ago which would have avoided the problems besetting Parliament in recent times.
My basic idea involves two very slight changes to the electoral system: First, we make voting compulsory to ensure that the result reflects the views of the entire country, not just those who can be bothered to go to the polling stations; second, to be fair to the non-botherers, all the voting slips will have an extra box added after the names of the candidates labelled “None of the above”. If this last category gathers the highest number of votes, then no MP is elected for that constituency.
I have analysed the results of the 2017 election to measure the effect this would have had. For that purpose, I have assumed that all the people who did not vote would, if voting had been compulsory, have put their cross in the “None of the above” box.
That may not be quite correct, but the number of non-voters who changed their minds and opted for one of the candidates would in all probability be balanced by the voters who switched their allegiance from a candidate to “None of the above” when given that additional choice.
So the basic question was whether the winner in any given constituency scored a higher number of votes than the number of people who didn’t vote at all.
If they did, they would have been elected; if they didn’t, then the constituency, under my new system, elects no one.
I can now announce the new result of the 2017 election: The Conservatives have 277 MPs, Labour have 181, LibDems 9, DUP 4, SNP 2, Green 1, Plaid Cymru 1. And in 175 constituencies, “None of the above” comes first so no MP is elected.
The advantages are obvious: not only does the result give a clear overall majority enabling the winning party to carry out its policies, but we save the salaries of 175 MPs. An MP’s basic annual salary is £79,468 so a total of £13,906,900 would be saved immediately. Vote “None of the above”. You know it makes sense.