Fresh Start for Democracy (Adam Teladia)

Fresh Start for Democracy

September 5, 2007 12:02 AM

Dear Mr Khalid Mahmood MP,

I am writing to you with regard to my concern for the state of democracy in our country and ask that you call on the Government to act now to renew our democracy.

I hope that would you agree with me that given the cash for honours situation it is now essential that we have a revising chamber which is wholly elected, and thus enjoys a clear democratic mandate from the people? I hope that you will drop your support for a wholly appointed chamber and support a wholly elected or at least not oppose an elected element to the second chamber.

I also believe that only proportional representation can adequately reflect voter choice and that without a truly representative system, is it surprising that people consider politicians to be irrelevant? A first step towards the reinvigoration of our democracy must be the overhaul of our unfair electoral system. We cannot persist with a situation where parties with significant levels of support in local communities or in Westminster elections find that they are excluded from the system by the unfair First-Past-the-Post voting system. Therefore I would encourage you to ask that government to introduce the Single Transferable Voting system for all local elections at the earliest opportunity and start a debate on how to make the House of Commons a chamber which reflects the votes that have been cast.

What better way to re-engage young people and show them that their attitudes, opinions and views matter then to give them a say in the decisions governing their lives. I would hope that you will do in your power to convince your parliamentary colleagues that now is the time to reduce the age for voting and standing in elections to sixteen.

I hope that you to lobby the government and your backbench colleagues to seize this opportunity to reinvigorate politics by calling for ordinary citizens to have a chance to reform the unfair voting system. You have the chance to help initiate a Fresh Start for Democracy. I would urge you to do everything in your power to bring this about.

Please can you raise my concerns with the Ministry of Justice and let me know what they have to say on these issues.

Yours sincerely,

Adam Nazir Ahmed Teladia