Bridgwater Labour Party is supporting the Equal Votes Lobby on Friday 12th March to highlight the urgent need to change the UK’s First Past The Post (FPTP) voting system. Unable to meet in person due to the pandemic, activists from across the constituency will join a video call to help persuade their MP Ian Lidell-Grainger why Proportional Representation (PR) should be used to elect all MPs. The campaigners say it’s about time Parliament reflected the way people voted by making seats match votes. For this to happen, they say elections should be decided by a proportional system.
In Somerset there are no local council elections on May 6th but the Police and Crime Commissioner election will go ahead and it already uses a ‘top up’ system of PR which will ensure the person elected will have a wider base of support, using 2nd and 3rd choice votes to get a result. Campaigners say the time is right to push electoral reform to the top of the political agenda. At a local and national level, they say that PR would give voters the voice they are unfairly denied under FPTP.
A petition calling for MPs to support Proportional Representation can be signed here https://www.makevotesmatter.org.uk/sign-petition
Friday, 12th March, has been called as a national day of action by Make Votes Matter to lobby MPs to support Proportional Representation. Jon Falkingham, Branch Treasurer of Bridgwater Labour Party, is organising the local event. Jon says “Make Votes Matter have agreed to send someone down to Bridgwater & West Somerset (virtually!) as a spokesperson for PR. Ian Liddell-Granger is yet to respond to my emails inviting him to discuss the issue, the whole point is to get him there, so I need your help! Follow the MVM link here and use the template to ask him to attend, 6.30 – 7.30pm, 12th March, on Zoom. Meeting ID: 853 8384 2093 Passcode: 829524. Double up the help by coming yourself. The more the merrier! It’s a public event – triple the help by inviting everyone you know from the area too!”
