Wales is updating its democracy: Why does Westminster refuse to?

100 years since women first won the right to vote, 68% of votes still don’t matter. It’s time to tell our MPs we want Proportional Representation now, argues Plaid Cymru MP for Dwyfor Meirionnydd Liz Saville-Roberts

THE British government has declared this week to be the first ever “National Democracy Week”, to coincide with the 90th anniversary of the equalisation of voting ages for men and women.

Equal votes for men and women represented an incredibly important step forward – as did the extension of the franchise to women (albeit only those who were over 30 and owned property) a century ago.

It’s important that we mark these milestones and commemorate the women who brought them about.

There is a lot further to go, however, before the government can truly start celebrating UK democracy – in many respects little has changed since women won the vote.

There is a pervasive attitude I encounter at Westminster – particularly among Conservatives but also some Labour MPs – that the quality of a democracy is to be measured solely by its age.

It’s a ridiculous idea, of course. We wouldn’t say “the older the better” when it comes to housing stock, public sanitation, transport networks or judicial processes. Like everything else, a democratic system should be judged based on how well it’s doing its job.

In fact, Westminster’s creaking institutions have been failing voters for a long time.

The UK is one of the only remaining developed countries to use First Past the Post – a voting system that tends to benefit the two biggest parties, but cheats voters out of their voice in politics wherever it is used.

Most developed countries already use a form of Proportional Representation, in which seats match votes and every vote counts equally.

It’s healthy for a democracy to review its processes once in a while – at least every couple of decades – by consulting the voters.

The Welsh Assembly has only existed for 20 years, but it is already conducting a root and branch review of Welsh democracy.

Most importantly, it is asking the voters what they think.

Westminster has no intention of taking such progressive action. Even when petitions signed by half a million people are presented to Downing Street they are roundly ignored or dismissed with a facile letter from a Cabinet Office minister.

When any sort of change is proposed, it’s as a partisan calculation. In a decision that looks baffling only if you ignore the obvious power politics behind it, the Conservatives allowed a referendum on the nonproportional “Alternative Vote” in 2011 – for two very sound reason.

Firstly, it was a system no one

‘Equal votes for men and women represented an incredibly important step forward... there is a lot further to go, however, before the Government can truly start celebrating UK democracy’

wanted – so it was unlikely to ever be adopted. Secondly, if it had been adopted, it would have changed almost nothing.

In fact, analysis by the Electoral Reform Society showed that the 2015 general election would have handed the Conservatives an even bigger majority if AV had been used.

And so the charade goes on. All the while that the Welsh Assembly’s Expert Panel – headed up by Professor Laura McAllister – sets out smart, nuanced options for the best voting system for Wales, Westminster is still in broad disagreement about whether Parliament should even reflect how the people voted.

It feels like Wales – and indeed Scotland – are a hundred years ahead of Westminster.

But, Make Votes Matter – the burgeoning movement for PR for general elections – is making a persuasive case for change. They are doing their utmost to push Westminster on, so that the UK as a whole can catch up with Wales, Scotland, and most of the developed world.

Last Saturday, people from across the political spectrum put party political differences aside and campaigned for PR at Westminster in over sixty locations across the UK. From Aberdeen, to Brighton, to Aberystwyth, volunteers talked to their communities about fair votes and signed up members of the public to a petition their local MPs.

This could be the start of the kind of broad social movement that is needed if we are to have a democracy fit for the 21st Century – one that not only asks for change, but is determined and energetic enough to win it.

If that sounds like something the UK desperately needs at the moment, I urge you to sign the petition to Make Votes Matter and join the fight for fair votes.