First-past-the-post system violently skews result

Published: 27 May, 2010

• FORMER Camden finance chief John Mills suggests the election in Camden produced a result which was the reverse of that obtained from the general election (Forum, May 20).
If one only considers the number of council seats won by each of the political parties, this would be a reasonable conclusion and his subsequent analysis of the Camden swing may be considered as accurate. However, this type of analysis does not give even an approximate picture of local opinion. Consider the following table:

2010 local election
(excludes Haverstock ward)
             
                actual   %          seats
                seats    share      won
                won      of vote    with PR
Lab            30       33.2          17
Lib Dem     10       28.9          15
Con           10       25.2          13 
Green         1        11.9          6

It is obvious, from the share of the vote obtained by each party, that the Camden electorate is far from enthusiastic about the return of the Labour Party to power in the borough. Indeed, the majority of the electorate seems to believe that the outgoing Lib Dem/Conservative alliance would be preferable. Contrary to John Mills’s assertions, this is fairly similar to what has happened nationally.

The difference between the Camden and the national situation is that the Lib Dems and Tories were in power in Camden, before the elections. This resulted in a relatively small number of floating voters being sufficiently annoyed by one or more of the 2006/2010 council policies to vote Labour.

As the first-past-the-post system violently skews the result, the small shift in sentiment was enough to give the Camden Labour Party a massive majority. If the election had given a result which fairly reflected the preferences of the Camden electorate (as with proportional representation), the alliance could have continued in power for another four years.

From the electorate’s viewpoint, the new Labour administration in Camden is a minority one. It is to be hoped that Camden Labour Party recognises that fact.

John Mills suggested that, at the national level, the Lib Dems will come to regret joining with the Conservatives to form a coalition government. The more extreme items in both party’s manifestos have been quietly dropped and the country will benefit from this.

Most people are sick of the cynical, dishonest, confrontational politics of recent times.
Only time will tell whether taking the coalition risk has been worth it.
ALAN TEMPLETON
Honeybourne Road, NW6