Temporarily Merge Parties or Form An Alliance to Protect Our Hospitals and Schools
The Issue
Summary:
The UK is being ruled by the Conservatives despite their only having a minority of support from the public. This is resulting in our public services, especially the NHS, being underfunded and dismantled, as well as our economy plummeting into debt. Despite the growing support for Labour the electoral system is so badly broken that the Conservatives could still win and their reign could continue until there is no NHS left. The best chance of success is therefore to unite Labour with as many other parties as possible to win the election and then change the rules so that all votes matter and parties need to receive a majority of votes in order to get a majority of seats. Once this has been done the policy of dismantling the NHS will be too unpopular for any party that supports it to gain a majority of seats. If this action is not taken then we could end up having our health service privatised, resulting in people who are already seriously ill or injured being given bills for tens of thousands of pounds that they do not have. This sort of system already leads to people losing their homes through no fault of their own in America and hits the poorest families the hardest.
This petition now has its own Facebook Group: 'Bring in PR to Save the NHS'. Its aim is to provide a forum for those who want to discuss this petition as well as raise awareness of any others that may help improve the democratic process and protect the NHS.
Since the Conservative party came into power in 2015, after receiving just 24% of all possible votes, it has brought in a series of very unpopular measures. These have resulted in the first ever doctors’ strike, due to the new contract endangering patients, as well as a strike from teachers over schools being forced to become academies regardless of the impact on the quality of education. This, combined with the latest revelations regarding David Cameron’s profiting from tax avoidance, has led to hundreds of thousands of people protesting in person and online, through a government petition(1), demanding David Cameron’s resignation.
The government has recently replied to the online petition denying that the Prime Minister ever told any lies or tried to mislead the public during the election campaign and said that the government cannot call an early general election. This means that currently our only option is to wait for 4 years and then hope that our electoral system will lead to a popular government that will repair the damage done to the NHS and allow those schools forced to become academies to return to being schools again.
Unfortunately our current electoral system, First Past The Post, has failed us many times in the past, awarding a majority of seats to parties without a majority of votes. Further to this, the Conservative government has brought in several changes to UK law which further weaken democracy(2) in addition to breaking the law on how much they spend on campaigns(3). Not only are you expected to try to win using a broken system, you must do so with less funding and fewer seats against an opponent that cheats.
However, there is a way to still use the system and force it to work despite these serious faults. Most of the major political parties came together, despite all of their differences, after the last election to request Proportional Representation (PR)(4). While their petition, with its 500,000 signatories, was dismissed by the Conservative government, it proves that this issue is important enough to unite them all. Therefore, if you were to temporarily unite Labour with these parties at the next election to either form an alliance or temporarily merge into 1 party campaigning to bring in PR and then hold an election using this system, you would receive almost double the votes that the Conservatives receive(5). This would then enable you to fix the electoral system so that all parties receive the no of seats that they deserve. This would have a very high chance of granting power to parties that will not just protect our hospitals and schools but also be keener on clamping down on tax dodging to help our economy recover.
If you choose to unite into a PR Alliance this also creates an opportunity to trigger an early general election so that our public services are not as damaged and schools might be able to avoid being forced to become academies. In the government’s dismissal of the request for an early general election saying that it cannot be done, it explains that the government can call for an early general election using the following method:
“if a motion of no confidence (as worded in section 2(4) of the [Fixed-Term Parliaments] Act) is passed by the House of Commons and the House does not pass a motion of confidence (as worded in section 2(5) of the Act) in the Government or an alternative Government within 14 days.”
Due to the slim majority that the current government has, it will only need a handful of Conservative rebels to support the motion of no confidence for 14 days to bring in this new election. This support could also be obtained by winning 10 by-elections from the Conservative party, which could be triggered if enough political pressure can be brought to bear to get the police to fully investigate the numerous claims of electoral fraud which have been raised by Conservative supporters.
I don’t want to lose the NHS and find myself or a loved one unable to pay essential medical bills due to an insurance company finding an excuse not to pay, as so often happens in countries without an NHS. The sooner we act, the less damage will be inflicted and the easier it will be to repair our public services.
We therefore ask that you form a PR Alliance Party to protect our public services.
#MakeVotesMatter #Yes2PR #MakeSeatsMatchVotes #PRAlliance
(1) https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/122946
(3) http://www.thecanary.co/2016/02/29/tories-systematically-cheat-elections-says-campaign-manager/
(4) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32786750
(5) If all votes for Labour, The Green Party, The Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, The Scottish National Party and UKIP from the 2015 election are combined, the PR Alliance would obtain 18,438,086 votes compared to the Conservatives’ 11,300,303. This total rises to 19,397,907 votes when including all non-Conservative votes as other parties may also join the alliance. This data was gathered fromwww.electionresources.org/uk/2015.html
The Issue
Summary:
The UK is being ruled by the Conservatives despite their only having a minority of support from the public. This is resulting in our public services, especially the NHS, being underfunded and dismantled, as well as our economy plummeting into debt. Despite the growing support for Labour the electoral system is so badly broken that the Conservatives could still win and their reign could continue until there is no NHS left. The best chance of success is therefore to unite Labour with as many other parties as possible to win the election and then change the rules so that all votes matter and parties need to receive a majority of votes in order to get a majority of seats. Once this has been done the policy of dismantling the NHS will be too unpopular for any party that supports it to gain a majority of seats. If this action is not taken then we could end up having our health service privatised, resulting in people who are already seriously ill or injured being given bills for tens of thousands of pounds that they do not have. This sort of system already leads to people losing their homes through no fault of their own in America and hits the poorest families the hardest.
This petition now has its own Facebook Group: 'Bring in PR to Save the NHS'. Its aim is to provide a forum for those who want to discuss this petition as well as raise awareness of any others that may help improve the democratic process and protect the NHS.
Since the Conservative party came into power in 2015, after receiving just 24% of all possible votes, it has brought in a series of very unpopular measures. These have resulted in the first ever doctors’ strike, due to the new contract endangering patients, as well as a strike from teachers over schools being forced to become academies regardless of the impact on the quality of education. This, combined with the latest revelations regarding David Cameron’s profiting from tax avoidance, has led to hundreds of thousands of people protesting in person and online, through a government petition(1), demanding David Cameron’s resignation.
The government has recently replied to the online petition denying that the Prime Minister ever told any lies or tried to mislead the public during the election campaign and said that the government cannot call an early general election. This means that currently our only option is to wait for 4 years and then hope that our electoral system will lead to a popular government that will repair the damage done to the NHS and allow those schools forced to become academies to return to being schools again.
Unfortunately our current electoral system, First Past The Post, has failed us many times in the past, awarding a majority of seats to parties without a majority of votes. Further to this, the Conservative government has brought in several changes to UK law which further weaken democracy(2) in addition to breaking the law on how much they spend on campaigns(3). Not only are you expected to try to win using a broken system, you must do so with less funding and fewer seats against an opponent that cheats.
However, there is a way to still use the system and force it to work despite these serious faults. Most of the major political parties came together, despite all of their differences, after the last election to request Proportional Representation (PR)(4). While their petition, with its 500,000 signatories, was dismissed by the Conservative government, it proves that this issue is important enough to unite them all. Therefore, if you were to temporarily unite Labour with these parties at the next election to either form an alliance or temporarily merge into 1 party campaigning to bring in PR and then hold an election using this system, you would receive almost double the votes that the Conservatives receive(5). This would then enable you to fix the electoral system so that all parties receive the no of seats that they deserve. This would have a very high chance of granting power to parties that will not just protect our hospitals and schools but also be keener on clamping down on tax dodging to help our economy recover.
If you choose to unite into a PR Alliance this also creates an opportunity to trigger an early general election so that our public services are not as damaged and schools might be able to avoid being forced to become academies. In the government’s dismissal of the request for an early general election saying that it cannot be done, it explains that the government can call for an early general election using the following method:
“if a motion of no confidence (as worded in section 2(4) of the [Fixed-Term Parliaments] Act) is passed by the House of Commons and the House does not pass a motion of confidence (as worded in section 2(5) of the Act) in the Government or an alternative Government within 14 days.”
Due to the slim majority that the current government has, it will only need a handful of Conservative rebels to support the motion of no confidence for 14 days to bring in this new election. This support could also be obtained by winning 10 by-elections from the Conservative party, which could be triggered if enough political pressure can be brought to bear to get the police to fully investigate the numerous claims of electoral fraud which have been raised by Conservative supporters.
I don’t want to lose the NHS and find myself or a loved one unable to pay essential medical bills due to an insurance company finding an excuse not to pay, as so often happens in countries without an NHS. The sooner we act, the less damage will be inflicted and the easier it will be to repair our public services.
We therefore ask that you form a PR Alliance Party to protect our public services.
#MakeVotesMatter #Yes2PR #MakeSeatsMatchVotes #PRAlliance
(1) https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/122946
(3) http://www.thecanary.co/2016/02/29/tories-systematically-cheat-elections-says-campaign-manager/
(4) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32786750
(5) If all votes for Labour, The Green Party, The Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, The Scottish National Party and UKIP from the 2015 election are combined, the PR Alliance would obtain 18,438,086 votes compared to the Conservatives’ 11,300,303. This total rises to 19,397,907 votes when including all non-Conservative votes as other parties may also join the alliance. This data was gathered fromwww.electionresources.org/uk/2015.html
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Petition created on 29 April 2016