Saturday 7 November 2009

And Then There Were None?

Tony Blair was no enthusiast for Proportional Representation. He gave it to new bodies to indicate that he didn't think they mattered. But his introduction of the party list system for Strasbourg, while certainly having that motivation, also had another. The old European Parliamentary Labour Party had been a rich seam of dissent over many long years. Almost all of it was duly purged. To that end, the whole electoral system was changed. And that end was achieved.

Now it is the Tories' turn. The party list system effectively guarantees that neither Edward McMillan-Scott (probably, although then again he might be given a peerage and Ministerial office in a Heseltine-directed government featuring Ken Clarke, David Hunt and all the rest of them), nor Roger Helmer or Dan Hannan (certainly), stands any realistic chance of re-election. Bottom of the list, if on the list at all.

Why do they stay in the Conservative Party? Is McMillan-Scott still in it, even technically? Is Hannan in anything beyond a technical sense? In his publications, he is actively promoting the creation of a breakaway party. Why doesn't he just come out and say so? And we are still only a few months in. At this rate, by the time of the next European Elections, will there be any incumbent Tories at all?

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