Is British Politics Broken? Readers on Reform and Labour

Is British politics fundamentally broken after the recent chaos surrounding Sir Keir Starmer? Blighty asked whether replacing him with another Labour MP as prime minister would fix it. Here is a selection of readers’ replies, edited for brevity.

Electoral reform, devolution and the House of Lords

Yes, politics is broken. The solution to repairing it would involve introducing proportional representation to better reflect the feelings of the electorate, reforming the House of Lords to make it representative of Britain’s nations and regions, and real devolution of power and funding to the lowest possible points of government.

Power should be retained at the centre only for those national elements that cannot be devolved, such as defence, and Britain should re-join the EU in full as soon as possible.

I’m a great fan of Gordon Brown’s report written in 2022 at the request of Sir Keir when he was leader of the opposition. It foresaw many of the problems we face today and laid out in some detail the way forward.

Philip Oliver, Farnham, Surrey

MPs, citizen assemblies and compulsory preferential voting

Halve the number of MPs and double their salaries; pay peanuts and you get monkeys. Mandate that a minimum number of MPs must have worked in industry; if MPs don’t have experience outside public services how can they possibly construct functioning policy.

Build citizen assemblies in significant volume; more representation of the actual population and not the political class can only ever be a good thing.

Leverage technology to allow for a jury-service-like system where millions of voters can be polled at once on policy issues; not to set policy but to guide the incumbent government on policy decisions.

Switch from first-past-the-post to majority rule, and legally mandate voting by all eligible citizens like in Australia with a 1, 2, 3 preference. This is by far the most important and is pressing in the face of Reform UK and the Greens. Without electoral reform we will sleepwalk into being an entirely ungovernable country.

James Chapman-Andrews, Pamber End, Hampshire

First-past-the-post and a splintered electorate

Maybe Labour should follow what Emmanuel Macron is trying to do in France by inoculating the country against the National Rally. Britain’s first-past-the-post system does not work with a splintered electorate. Labour should legislate now so that the next election uses some form of proportional representation.

Chris Ing-Simmons, St Just, Cornwall

Is Westminster working better than Washington?

British politics is not as broken as politics is in America. The two American parties have so successfully captured the electoral system that few seats in either federal chamber are actively competitive. American leaders pick their voters.

The British electorate at least holds the power to turf out their representatives. British parties likewise hold the power to ditch their leaders. The American system is an unassailable duopoly with no such constraints on leadership.

The British political system as a whole is working as it should. Successive British governments have, however, proven themselves gutless, feckless and desperately unimaginative at providing the change Britain needs.

Matthew Berry, Baltimore

What next for Labour after Starmer?

The main issue for Britain is getting out of stasis. Now that it’s time for Sir Keir to leave office, Labour should elect a leader on the left, not from the Corbynite-anti-capitalist left, but someone from the soft left.

Such a left-wing prime minister would be an anathema to much of Britain, but the post-Blair Labour Party is a party of the left. If it chooses yet another “competent, middle-of-the-road” prime minister the parliamentary party would block any major reforms.

A prime minister from the soft left would have the support of Labour MPs and might be actually able to govern. A soft-left Labour Party would eventually recover in the polls. It’s a fair trade for a party facing the abyss at the moment.

Nikos Anastasiou, Athens

Constitution, Brexit reversal and the Treasury

Only a federal written constitution can now hold the United Kingdom together. Politicians need a mechanism to listen to the people, more referendums on major topics. For this to work the constitution needs to require all communications to be “fair, clear, and not misleading”, same as with financial-services law. Apply it to politicians.

Moreover, only reversing Brexit can start the process of economic recovery. Britain needs free-movement of labour to acquire specialist skills, especially for the National Health Service.

And the Treasury is far too powerful. It is regressive and short-termist and sets up long-term cost penalties for little immediate benefit, such as the Private Finance Initiative and its latest incarnation, 25-year contracts for freeports, enterprise zones.

David Kauders, Baar, Switzerland

Call for chief-executive leadership

British politics is not entirely broken but what is needed is a prime minister who has the skill of a chief executive. Successful businesses have leaders who inspire and lead their team, communicate and set out a vision and plan on how to achieve it. So often in our politics leaders are chosen who lack leadership skills.

Bryan Portman, Bookham, Surrey

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