Change to German electoral system – is Sir Keir watching?

This week the German coalition government of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals began moves to reform the Federal Parliament (Bundestag) in what would be their country’s biggest constitutional shake-up for many years.

With electoral reform likely to be on the UK’s political agenda after the Conservatives almost certainly lose the next general election (due by January 2025 at the very latest) the choices made in Berlin are worth examining. Especially because their present government is ideologically very similar to a likely Labour-led coalition in the UK.

Germany has a hybrid system, with some MPs elected on a Westminster-style first-past-the-post system, but others elected via a top-up list so as to make the entire Bundestag represent the nationwide percentage share of the vote.

This hybrid system means that the Bundestag is not simply divided proportionally to match the parties’ share of the vote. For example, to gain proportionally-based seats, a party must poll at least 5% nationwide, or qualify for proportional top-ups if it wins at least three directly-elected seats. This happened recently with the far-left party Die Linke.

On the other hand, a party with a very strong regional base can end up winning more directly elected seats than a proportional carve-up would have given them. This is the case with Bavaria’s conservative party CSU. Extra seats are created to balance out such anomalies and are known as ‘overhang’ seats: these have meant that the present Bundestag is the largest ever, with 736 MPs.

This week’s proposed reform would eliminate ‘overhang’ seats, and fix the number of German MPs at 598.

At a basic level the reform is likely to be popular with voters, since it will save money and cut bureaucracy. And it’s a cunning move by the government because it will weaken the CSU. Even though CSU is the sister party of CDU, the present system of ‘overhang’ balancing takes no account of that, and gives an artificial boost to the combined CDU-CSU strength.

Reforming this would be likely to make any future conservative-led government more dependent on a deal with parties further to the right – presently AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) or whichever party succeeds AfD if it splits/declines. Unsurprisingly, the present reform is similar to a policy that the AfD itself promoted four years ago.

Here in the UK the party in a similar position to CSU (though very different ideologically) is Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party. The present electoral system gives the SNP grossly inflated importance at Westminster, relative to its share of the UK-wide vote. At the last general election SNP won 3.9% of the UK-wide vote, and 48 MPs (i.e. 7.4% of the House of Commons). The system almost doubled the SNP’s importance at Westminster, and this would be far more important in the event of no major party gaining a Commons majority, thus making Sturgeon and her allies kingmakers.

By contrast a more purely proportional system would probably give a populist/nationalist party (i.e. whatever replaces Reform UK and UKIP) more Westminster seats than the SNP. The other big winners from a change to a German-style system would almost certainly be the Greens.

Most importantly for racial nationalists, it would end the ‘wasted vote’ argument that has so far prevented many of those who sympathise with our ideas from voting for a racial nationalist party.

Bank bail-out: every family shouldering £4,350 tax liability

Every family in the country is now facing a tax liability of £4,350 to prop up Britain’s banking system.

DAILY TELEGRAPH, 4 Nov 2009: Alistair Darling yesterday unveiled the biggest bail-out of any bank in history.

The Chancellor confirmed that the Government would pump an extra £25.5 billion into Royal Bank of Scotland, declaring that this was the only way to keep it alive.

Taxpayers have now poured a total of £53.5 billion into RBS alone, including the £20 billion part-nationalisation last year and another £8 billion set aside yesterday as insurance against further trouble in the future.

In total, the Government has now pumped £74 billion of taxpayers’ money into the banks since the start of the financial crisis a year ago.

Read full article [external link]

EFP comments on the Labour Party Conference 2009

— Yesterday afternoon the delegates to the Labour Party Conference – Cabinet Ministers, MPs, Peers, Party officials and 2000 delegates from across the United Kingdom got up and clapped and shouted their approval as Gordon Brown, MP for Kirkaldy and Cowdenbeath in Fifeshire in Scotland, announced measure after measure of new legislation for England, and only for England, in defiance of the very fundamentals of what the people of England founded their parliament for 800 years ago.

EFP  Comment:

“Gordon Brown announced new legislation to place new teenage mothers in hostels rather than council houses; to provide free personal care for the very elderly in their homes, to limit pub opening hours, to control broken families unable to control their children, to bring in additional controls on wild disruptive youngsters, to provide 250,000 free childcare places and to delay the introduction of ID cards. Very many people will indeed agree with these measures. These are issues that the EFP would support, but we are also concerned with democracy for England. When England – and the British Isles stops all further non-white immigration and gets its own parliament, this parliament will concern itself wholeheartedly with the welfare of the people of England – the real true people of England – white people!”

These measures concern matters which affect England only. The fundamental nature of English democracy as founded with the English Parliament in the 13th century and developed by the people of England over the past 800 years is that it is representative democracy. Law makers are accountable to the people who elect them. They are elected to be their representatives in their parliament. But Brown is not elected by any English voters. He is not accountable to any English voter for any of these specific measures. His action, and the conference applause for it, is a repudiation of this most fundamental aspect of the English democratic tradition.

NEW CAMPAIGN: Cast you vote for REAL electoral reform

Dear Nationalists,

I know you’re busy, but please spare a moment to look at this website:

http://power2010.org.uk/page/s/yourideas

It’ll only take a few minutes of your time (you only need enter your name, email and postcode), but it could be one of the most effective opportunities for us to promote an English Parliament and an end to non-white immigration. If we all remain silent, we really will deserve what we’re given.

POWER2010 has its roots in the Power Inquiry, which was established by the Rowntree Trusts in 2005 and undertook the biggest ever inquiry into the health of Britain’s democracy.

They want to identify five key reforms that will change the way we do politics in this country and the five most popular ideas will become the POWER2010 Pledge.

They will then ensure every candidate standing at the next election is asked to make a public commitment – a pledge – on these policies. Can you help make stopping all further non-white immigration and a referendum on an English Parliament two of them?

Many thanks,

EFP admin