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Opinion: Voting reform must take a back seat to maintain #LibDemFightback momentum

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Standing at a North London bus stop the evening after Britain went to the polls, I overheard a man give his take, on David Cameron’s surprising majority, to a friend:

You see people that don’t live in cities just don’t understand…they’ll always vote right-wing.

As someone from the countryside who has now voted for a hat-trick of different parties, I took offence in a quietly British way to his throwaway analysis of the left’s failure to make gains outside of London. And yet of course he had a point, too.

In 2010 my friends and I voted for the first time knowing that unless we chose the Conservatives, our vote would effectively not count. Recently local support for UKIP was obvious by the number of signs in front gardens, and I was saddened to see Nigel Farage’s party move up to second in my constituency, displacing the Liberal Democrat alternative. But, just as the idealistic Sixth Formers I knew in 2010 were thwarted by First Past the Post and its safe seats, so were the significantly older and larger contingent so visibly backing UKIP in many constituencies like mine in 2015.

We now have two relatively new parties at opposite ends of the political spectrum, the Greens and UKIP, arguing for electoral reform. The contrast between the SNP’s 1.5 million votes returning 56 seats and UKIP’s 3.9 million producing just 1 isn’t just a damning indictment of the system’s unfairness – it’s a wake-up call for those who believe in the Union. Most commentators agree that Scottish independence won’t be a swift consequence of the results, but they also share the view that reversing the SNP’s rise will be a mountain to climb for its rivals.

And, yet, PR would not be a solution to everything or a recipe for harmony, as history has often proved. More importantly for the growing movement that is #LibDemFightback, it is not a battle the party should prioritise at present. The Lib Dems will always be the party of fairer votes and steps should be taken to remind the country of that fact once a new leader is elected. But the AV referendum of 2011 was badly handled and a wasted opportunity. It was right to go into a coalition, indeed it would have been foolish to waste the chance to implement real change, but there were also inevitable mistakes and missed opportunities. The AV referendum was one of them and I doubt the general public are ready for another debate on the issue.

The Londoner at the bus stop was right about Tory strength in the countryside. But until recently the Lib Dems had many more of their own rural fortresses. To win back seats the party must defend its achievements, regain trust, carve out a unique evidence based policy position for itself and stay high profile. With a weakened parliamentary presence, the last of these is especially crucial.

The harsh fact is that voting reform is a not realistic at present. Change must be achieved within the system we have and with the government we have. Lib Dems need to be champions of causes no one else will fight for, putting the party firmly in the public eye and rebuilding electoral support as a result. Issues like devolution, the Union, the EU, civil liberties, human rights, education, welfare and climate change are crying out for a party with a strong alternative vision. Both leadership candidates have some fantastic ideas and whoever is elected needs to make these urgent topics their own in the media spotlight. But picking its battles and deploying a growing membership in a targeted, highly visible way will be crucial to the party’s influence, success and survival.

* Liam Trim is a History graduate and former student journalist currently working in Digital Marketing


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