Responding to reports that Andy Burnham wants to push electoral reform forward and move the UK towards proportional representation, Gian Lorenzo Spisso, a settled-status resident in Bristol, has written to the Guardian to argue that first past the post is the lesser of two evils.
Italian perspective on proportional systems
Spisso, who comes from Italy, says he has seen proportional systems at work. He argues they drive a wedge between MPs and their constituents, reward tribalism, leave large parts of the electorate hostage to the whims of tiny parties, and force parties into ragtag coalitions that produce unstable, ineffective governments. For all that, he says, people do not seem to feel any better represented.
Having lived in the UK since 2014 and watched its parties with an outsider's eyes, Spisso still sees first past the post as the lesser of two evils.
Lessons from Brexit and Labour's reinvention
Spisso notes that Brexit exposed a complete lack of leadership in David Cameron's Conservative party, calling it an act of unprecedented self-harm that the country is still paying for. But he also says it showed that parties outside the big two can exert enough pressure to force the party in power to adapt and listen to voters.
Labour, he says, has reinvented itself remarkably: from Ed Miliband's soft left to Jeremy Corbyn's more radical programme, and back again when that proved ineffective. He questions whether a major party would put itself through so much self-scrutiny without the incentives of first past the post, or whether it would have split into several streams, perhaps more representative but far less effective, squandering its history as so many parties of the Italian left have done.
Spisso, who expects to become a citizen this year and hopes to vote for Labour at the next general election, concludes: "please don't do this."
