Richard Wilson is standing for parliament in the upcoming election and has asked all candidates to sign a pledge that if they are elected they will refer all major decisions back to their constituents using a polling system (effectively a local referendum on every issue). Here’s our response:
Dear Richard,
Stroud District Green Party is grateful for the opportunity to consider the MyMP initiative. We offer the following comments and our decision.
Your campaign takes the form of a pledge and we are not opposed to taking pledges where they align with our core beliefs and policies.
We understand your intention is to enable determination of community views and require the elected MP to give most weight to that view in the discharge of their duties in parliament.
We can understand why this might appear attractive, but it presents some challenges and difficulties.
Firstly, the extent to which the outcome puts the MP at odds with a policy that was declared to the electorate prior to their election. You have suggested some safeguards for this, but in our view, it is still a difficult area.
Secondly, the Green Party’s policy development process is open to all its members and the absence of a whipping process allows for elected individuals to consider their own communities and conscience when in a position to implement them.
Thirdly, the process may be viewed as something of a ‘work round’ of the FPTP electoral system. It would have the potential for an MP, who will be likely to have achieved less than 50% of the vote, to be held hostage by a coalition of organised opponents who could potentially ensure they frequently voted against their own party. Caroline Lucas would have been mostly neutered by the Brighton Labour and Tory parties who have done so much to hinder progress by the minority Green administration at the council and are determined to get her out of parliament now. So we would prefer a change to the electoral system.
There are of course many other frustrations about the nature of our democracy in the UK of which the voting system is but one and we are certainly interested in all ideas that encourage participation and go toward wresting back the decision making from the unaccountable quangos and corporates.
So, whilst we cannot sign your pledge, we are still very interested in ideas for both gathering and influencing opinions in the communities we seek to represent.
Please feel free to share this letter with anyone who is interested in our decision and views.
Regards
Gerald Hartley
Elections Coordinator, Stroud & Cotswolds
Stroud District Green Party