25% and 11% - it doesn't add up
With support for Liberal Democrats running at 25% across the rest of the country, London stands out as an anomaly with only 11% for the party list. It seems that the heavy media interest in the Boris v Ken confrontation actually got in the way of good democracy.
Labour introduced the idea of having elected mayors, partly to bring some excitement back into politics, and it has certainly had that effect.
But higher turnouts are not the only measure of a healthy democracy. What is also necessary is a real understanding of the options, so that people make informed choices.
During the run-up to these elections I came across many electors who believed that they had to vote for Ken to keep Boris out, or vice versa. They didn't know about the second preference vote - at least not until I told them.
Even more worryingly, with the news focussing interminably on the mayoral contest, they didn't know they had a constituency Assembly member. They didn't know about the party lists and how these affected the eventual balance on the Assembly.
The London Elects booklet was a welcome addition to the literature, and it was clear if lengthy. Sadly it was delivered far too late in the campaign to have much impact.
The political parties did their best to explain the various voting systems in London. When I say 'political parties' round here, that means only the Lib Dems and Conservatives. Believe it or not, Ken Livingstone and Labour didn't deliver a single election leaflet in Chessington.
Nevertheless the media dominated the buzz around the London Elections. It was in their interest to simplify the story to a classic confrontation between two strong characters. After all, simple fights and rows sell newspapers, complex issues don't.
I'm not attempting to make excuses - this is about learning lessons. But my fear is that the machinery of democracy is now so dominated and skewed by the media that democracy itself is the loser.
Update
Since I wrote this I've received the analysis of the London Elections from Make Votes Count. This is a link to the pdf.
Comments: 4
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But the turnout was a record high.....particularly in your neck of the woods. You can't complain if more people come out and vote just they don't vote for us!...Well you can complain but it can hardly be said to be bad democracy.
I don't want to sound overly critical of you Mary. I have enormous respect for you and you are the last person I would expect to have a disagreement with. But I think you are on the wrong track here. You seem to be saying that we want high turnouts but only if they vote for us. And if they didn't vote for us, they didn't understand the choices and complexity. The "wrong type of votes" in other words.
Comment modified)
Since I wrote this I've seen the interesting report from Make Votes Count and have added it as a link in the main post.
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