Those of you who have been paying attention will have noticed that this time around, the mayoral elections were held under the corrosive first past the post system (FPTP). The government slipped the change into another piece of legislation, moving away from proportional representation, in the vain hope that this would help them win more of the elections. Their gerrymandering spectacularly backfired however, with the Conservatives winning (holding onto) only one of the 10 elected mayors, including London. By all counts it was a bad show for them.
As usual the recriminations and excuses came thick and fast. A common complaint was that by voting for any party other than the Conservative or Labour the vote had been split and the voters had let the other party in. This is a major problem (feature) with FPTP in that you really only have one choice if you wish to unseat the incumbent.
When I was in sales, I was frequently reminded not to blame the customer and it is bad form when politicians blame the electorate. We live in a system that still approximates a democracy and the people have spoken. Voters should vote for who they believe will best serve them and their region.
The fundamental problem with FPTP is that it elects representatives that don’t represent. Nobody should be elected who cannot command more than 50% of the popular vote. FPTP allows this to happen whereas proportional representation allows voters to express choice and, while they may not get their first choice, at least get someone they are happier with.
Of the ten mayoral elections last week, here are the results in order of winning percentage.
| Region | Winner | Percentage of vote |
| Liverpool City Region | Steve Rotheram | 68.0% |
| Greater Manchester | Andy Burnham | 63.4% |
| Tees Valley | Ben Houchen | 53.6% |
| South Yorkshire | Oliver Coppared | 50.9% |
| West Yorkshire | Tracy Brabin | 50.4% |
| London | Sadiq Khan | 43.8% |
| North East | Kim McGuinness | 41.3% |
| East Midlands | Claire Ward | 40.3% |
| West Midlands | Richard Parker | 37.8% |
| York and North Yorkshire | David Skaith | 35.1% |
Congratulations to all the successful candidates yet, as you can see, only 5 got over the 50% threshold and 5 did not. We will never know if the majority of the electorate is happy with the winner in the bottom 5 or not. This is not the fault of the candidates but the system.
FPTP is corrupt in that it allows and even encourages minority rule. It needs to go.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 