Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 23:33:24 +0000
From: Chris Burford <cburford-AT-gn.apc.org>
Subject: M-I: Further electoral reform in Britain


Today the Labour party announced its plans for the 1999 election to the
European Parliament.

They will be on the basis of regional lists (except in Northern Ireland
which will retain single transferable vote). Some purists say that this is
not really proportional representation, and others criticise the hold this
will give party managers over dissident party representatives, but it is
certainly a shift towards PR.

Conservative Party resistance to this has been token.

A fortnight ago the British government moved in to clamp down on excessive
and secret donations to political parties, taking advantage of the new
purity being promoted by the new head of the defeated Conservative Party,
to make a change that can not now be called too controversial.

When is a movement for electoral reform going to gather momentum in the US?

Chris Burford

London.



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