Local Democracy

Shires and Districts

     The methods chosen for elections at Shire and District level vary considerably, but mainly they are based on the First Past the Post system of election.   Like with the House of Commons this produces much distorted results.   In the 2006 local elections in the London Borough of Newham, Labour with 41.8% of the vote got 90% of the seats.   At a National level, in the 2002 local elections the Conservative Party got 72.2% of the seats with only 43.9% of the votes.   It is one of the scandals of local politics and no doubt contributes to the reason why turnout in local elections is so low.

                This is clearly wrong and produces wholly unrepresentative local government.   In future:

                Local government elections should be conducted under the Single Transferable Vote system of proportional representation with three members in each ward.

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