Stroud District Council approved a motion at its meeting on 26 October setting out its views on the proposed changes to UK parliamentary constituencies, which will significantly redraw the boundary lines of the Stroud constituency.
Councillor Catherine Braun (Green, Wotton Under Edge) successfully offered an amendment to the motion urging the Boundary Commission for England to include the adoption of proportional representation in its 2018 report to Parliament.
Councillor Martin Whiteside, Leader of the Greens, made the following statement:
“In the Green Party we believe passionately in democracy.
We support the idea that each person’s vote should count equally.
We live in a country in which a government with an absolute majority was only elected by 37% of those that voted; and by less than a quarter of those registered to vote – we live in a country in which the vote of a minority rule the majority.
The reality is that unfortunately here in the UK we don’t live in a democratic country.
The proposals forced on the boundary commission by the Conservative Government are an undemocratic sham.
Reducing the number of elected MPs in England from 650 to 600 to save money, while at the same time increasing the number of unelected members of the House of Lords to over 800 is an insult to democracy.
In 2015 it took:
- 34,244 votes to elect each Conservative MP
- 40, 290 votes to elect each Labour MP
- 301,986 to elect each LibDem MP
- 1,157,613 votes to elect a Green MP
- And 3,881,129 to elect a UKIP MP
Do we continue to pretend we live in a democracy?
Trying to equalize the number of voters in each constituency would be a good idea if the system was democratic in the first place.
Proportional representation is crucial to a truly vibrant and robust democracy and we demand meaningful reform to a system that now shuts out the voices of millions of voters.”