‘Our democracy is looking a little dodgy,’ says LibDem councillor Rob Colwell

In the first Friday Politics column since the General Election, local Liberal Democrat leader Rob Colwell reflects on the events of last Thursday…

I am sure we are all relieved that the general election is finally over. We have a new majority Labour government in charge and as they embark on their grand project to improve Britain I am sure that we all wish them well whoever we voted for. All new governments deserve a honeymoon.

But if you look a little closer at the results there are some worrying pointers to future trouble which we ignore at our peril. Let’s start here in West Norfolk. Nearly 64% of those who voted in the election wanted to replace the sitting Conservative MP for North West Norfolk James Wild with someone else. So who is going to Westminster to represent us? James Wild!

Or look next door at South West Norfolk. Liz Truss was booted out. But the winning Labour candidate got less than 27%. Nearly three quarters of voters didn’t want him either. You get the picture. Our democracy is looking a little dodgy.

But if we look at the national picture it goes from bad to worse. The triumphant Labour Party has been granted a landslide victory with 63% of the parliamentary seats on 34% of the vote. Yes, you read that right. Nearly two-thirds of the British voting public didn’t want this Labour government. They wanted something else.

Now if you are a Labour supporter I can see you smiling rather smugly as you read this. Go on, admit it. “Aren’t we clever,” you are saying to yourself. “We played the system very well in the election and now we are the masters of all we survey. About time too.”

The funny thing is, I can remember the Conservatives looking just as smug at each general election since 2015. The majority of us didn’t want those governments either.

Now you might be saying. “Well, our current voting system is not fair but it does give stable one party government in Britain and it also keeps out the extremists.” Perhaps, but before you potter off happily and make a cup of tea just think about this. Across America and Europe, intolerant far right parties are seeing a general surge in support, feeding off the fears and frustrations of voters with the political system.

These far right parties don’t respect democracy and will do everything in their power to subvert it. If they get power they work to take control of the media and the courts, find ways to suppress other political parties and ensure that their often corrupt backers take over all the senior positions in the country. If you don’t believe me look at Donald Trump in America or Victor Orban in Hungary.

Could it happen here? Well, yes, I’m afraid it could. Reform UK is our very own far right party. They won 14% in the general election. Many of the small remaining rump of Conservative MPs would dearly love to merge with Reform UK into a single far right block. Scary? Yes it is.

Let’s suppose just like Labour they then win a general election with an absolute majority in Parliament on a third of the vote. The difference is, I know for sure that if we don’t want Labour in five years’ time we can boot them out. With Reform UK I’m not so sure.

That’s a very big reason why we should replace our broken democracy with a system of fair votes. Proportional representation is already official Labour Party policy, passed overwhelmingly at their party conference. Now they have the chance, let’s hope they legislate to introduce fair voting for future general elections before it’s too late.