Jeremy Corbyn

• I PREDICT that Jeremy Corbyn will have won in the Islington North constituency with a significant majority.

This letter is not meant as an attack on Jeremy Corbyn who by most accounts has been a good constituency MP for many years now. It is a criticism of our outdated first-past-the-post electoral system.

The people of Islington will have put their crosses on a general election ballot sheet knowing full well who will be their MP in the morning (Friday). In other words, they have the vote in name only.

Who gets to form the new government will have been determined in 50 to 60 “marginal” seats, meaning that the decisions of less then 10 per cent of UK voters will have determined the outcome of the election. The situation in local elections is, if anything, even worse.

All over the country, there are councils with permanent overwhelming majorities for one party or another, usually Conservative or Labour in England. This is not good for democracy and it is not good for the voters.

Reliable academic research shows that local councils dominated by one party, be it Labour, Conservative or any other, achieve less value for money in their spending than more balanced councils that give greater opportunity for open debate and transparency.

Islington is one of those councils. It has 48 seats, 47 of which are held by councillors elected under the Labour banner, the one exception being Green councillor Caroline Russell.

This is despite the fact that Labour only had about 61 per cent of the total Islington vote in the last council elections. Ninety-eight per cent of the seats for 61 per cent of the votes is a pretty good return.

A tactical vote for the Green Party’s Natasha Cox in the St George’s ward by-election could have, or will have, doubled the size of the opposition on the council and given us all greater visibility into the activities of our council and the opportunity to challenge some of the activities that are currently proceeding unchecked because of institutional majority group-think.

PAUL ELLIOTT
Islington Green Party