The dilemma of the vote

As many of us sleep walk towards the coming election in the UK the rabid yapping of the political animal is the one noise we can not ignore. It is getting louder more shrill and ridiculously absurd in its claims.

"We will", prepares us for an excursion into wonderland. Forgetting the inactivity of the last four years on policy matters which are now once more under discussion, we are again promised action to make life better for all of us.

As electioneering starts it's difficult to know where to start as Pandora's box is opened and the toys tumble out. Reality is tucked away and the sweets are passed around with increasing largesse. We are asked to put on hold the precarious financial state of the nation, to forget the reasons for the austerity program which has been inflicted on us and sit back in awe at the potential riches which will flow if this or that party is elected to govern.

The spinning plates are mesmerising, how magically they stay spinning on their axis. We  know instinctively that as the magician brings more and more plates into play, at some stage the laws of nature will take over and the plates will crash, one after the other but whilst the election show is in progress we are captivated.

Easily led, willing to believe that "they" know best, frightened to believe that they don't we are caught in a gigantic charade, a pantomime. We are drawn into the farce, unassuming, innocent people who's lives are being gambled away by the croupiers of business and politics, both mixed up in the dirty business of deceit and corruption.

The one for the money, the other for the power they weald their influence on our lives spinning a set of half truths they loose themselves in their hyperbole, disconnecting truth from reality they become wedded to the party machine reciting the party line oblivious of fact from fiction.

How are we to disconnect the supply of power  which is the source to their falsehood.

Democracy the equitable sharing of power within a society is thought best to operate through a universal franchise, one person one vote.

Each individual has an opportunity to consider the electoral profile of each party by listening and reading each parties manifesto, choosing which they consider would best suit their particular circumstances. Voting for the local candidate who represents that party should, if there are enough similar minded people who also vote for that party, secure a voice in the next parliament.

But here is where it goes wrong. To produce a so called strong government a voting machine capable of making decisions and carrying a specific manifesto forward, a "first past the post" winner takes all system was created.

A new Government will now only represent a 'minority' view.

The combined parties who have lost polled many more votes than the winner ( excluding  the people who for what ever reason decided not to vote). Clearly, the "majority" are now forced to witness policy enactment in Parliament to which they are opposed.

The system creates an enormous feeling of disfranchisement and the society lapses into political apathy.

I would like to suggest a radical solution, one which would draw on the strength of the many. Draw on views which at least would then be heard in parliamentary debate, with the possibility to influence decisions.

I propose that when the votes are counted, so many for each candidate and collectively, so many for each party, the pool of votes for a party, irrespective of regions would indicate the strength of support for that parties manifesto. Out of the total votes cast the percentage of the of people who voted for that particular party, irrespective of where in the country, would entitle that party to field so many Parliamentary Seats in Parliament.

The candidate chosen to sit would be a matter for the Party, much as the make up of Government is decided not by the voter but by the Party after the election has been held.

First past the post has created the situation where only in a few marginal seats can individual voters hope to influence the outcome at an election.

True Representative Government with all shades of opinion and ideological make up, ready to debate and more importantly represent the views of all the electorate, is currently not on offer but would be if my proposal were to come into effect.

I suppose to ask the usual incumbents to even consider relinquishing power is the equivalent of whistling at the moon !!

But just imagine,the Vote in Parliament would be a proper reflection of the people Parliament is supposed to represent. Parliaments function of designing and passing Acts which effect us all and which, at the moment, we feel excluded would be a truly democratic and not the farce we see today.