The 13 year broken promise

Lots of talk about electoral reform at the moment, so I've been having a look at the alternatives.

However, seems the electoral reform on the first-past-the-post system is nothing new.  In 1997 the Labour manifesto stated

"We are committed to a referendum on the voting system for the House of Commons. An independent commission on voting systems will be appointed early to recommend a proportional alternative to the first-past-the-post system." 1

The British public voted in favour of this manifesto, and labour retained power.  In an attempt to fulfill this promise, the labour party set up the Jenkins' commission to review the electoral system in the UK.  2

The report states  "The Commission's central recommendation is that the best alternative for Britain to the existing First Past The Post system is a two-vote mixed system which can be described as either limited AMS or AV Top-up" 3

The commission developed the AV+ voting system for the UK, a hybrid solution involving a constituency based vote for approx 500 members of parliament and an additional 'top-up' group of MPs selected from party lists in order to 'top up' the commons to improve proportional representation at the national level (see 4 for a better explanation of AV+).

Since the Jenkins' report was published in 1998 we have had a recommendation for a voting system that provides a suitable compromise between proportional representation and constituency-linked parliament members.   For 12 years we have had an elected promise of a referendum to vote on this recommendation.  Still waiting...

1. http://www.labour-party.org.uk/manifestos/1997/1997-labour-manifesto.shtml

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenkins_Commission_(UK)

3. http://www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm40/4090/chap-9.htm

4. http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/article.php?id=56