Not a lot of people know this (perhaps only the sadly plodding scrutineers of primary
legislation) but the Scottish Parliament will have the power to frame a new voting system for electing local councillors. Well, we ken noo. In today's interview with The Herald, Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar makes it abundantly clear that the Holyrood Parliament will not flinch from using its prerogative in such matters, if it is so minded. It will also have the final say on how frequently council elections should be held, whether elected provosts working with small but high-powered cabinets will be the model for running local authorities, and the voting model to be used. The smart money is currently on proportional representation and if it is introduced after next year's local elections, it will mark a departure from a moribund voting norm which will be as welcome as it will be radical. A variation of PR will, of course, be used to elect candidates contesting the Additional Members' seats
for the Scottish Parliament.
Mr Dewar speaks of New Labour's constitutional agenda bridging the gap between the public and those who run the country, and the electoral model for Home Rule should help (while in all likelihood guaranteeing a Labour administration). In Scottish local government, the gap between the elected and the elector has reached chasmic proportions. There is a terrible apathy in council elections which
benefits no-one, not even those Labour councillors returned to virtually absolute power in the west-central belt and who, lacking any credible opposition, breed factionalism and cronyism by turning in on themselves. It is
little wonder that, in relative terms, so few people bother to vote. New Labour smells sleaze but largely lacks the evidence to prove it. The cynic might conclude that a PR voting system and annual council elections may be nothing more than the vehicle for delivering the Millbank-led New Labour purge of old Labour, thwarted to date by the meddlesome concept of natural justice.
In this case, however, we are prepared to attribute a nobler motive to Mr Dewar and his colleagues. Local government must be revivified for its own sake but also for the sake of Home Rule. True, PR does have its problems, most notably over the issue of putting forward candidates for election who are local yet who will be drawn from party lists. But it should not be beyond the wit of electoral system-framers to find a solution, particularly in a small country like Scotland which is made for PR, at least at the level of local-government voting. Mr Dewar rightly wants local democracy to be more voter-friendly, or accessible. PR is fiendishly difficult and sophisticated which, unless it is explained fully and clearly in terms of the voting system and its impact, might well alienate the public, particularly if they have to go to the ballot box annually. But it will be well worth the effort if
it produces a truly representative, open, scrupulous, and accessible model of local government dedicated to improving the lot of its diverse communities.
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