Give us our voice

Simon Hobson

As 2025 gets underway, its business as usual for all political parties. Not a one of them is investing the time into addressing the real want from us, the citizens: that is the dearth of democratic accountability. We want to be heard.

This is despite those same political parties incessantly mouthing their concerns at our lack of engagement with the democratic processes: by which they usually mean going out to vote, giving them, the establishment, the mandate to rule it over us from the centre.

No!

Stop fobbing us off with statements about, ‘economic roofs needing fixing’, ‘others having caused this mess’, ‘it’s the fault of Covid, Putin or Brexit’ and ‘everyone being in it together’. We know that there are international challenges, there always have been and always will be. It is the nature of living in a globalized world. No one really cares who made the mess, we just want it tidied up. And, clearly, we are not in it together.

The struggle

Who amongst our political leaders comes from a background of struggle? Which of them truly understands the pain of finding the money to pay the rent, the mortgage, cover the weekly food shop, buy the children new clothes, service the car payments, fill its tank with fuel, make time for our partners and loved ones, book an appointment with a GP, find an NHS dentist, find a private dentist! or, the energy and time to go to the gym nor, the countless other real world needs from which our politicians appear entirely oblivious and insulated.

The solution, at least the beginning of it, is obvious. The United Kingdom must bring in a fully proportional system of electing our Westminster governments. Our voices must be better represented.

Democracy dies

Because while the parliament in London remains stubbornly bound to the most undemocratic of voting structures to select our representatives, namely first-past-the-post (FPTP), millions of our votes go to waste. And with every wasted vote dies a part of our democracy, handing more power to the extremists. Be they Right, Left or Religious.

Further, once we have rid of this unfair FPTP way of electing our representatives, we can start the process of real politics. Politics which require mature and pragmatic people, who through their own lived experiences, have developed understanding and compassion for the daily grind. People who want to get things done and make the changes needed for us all to have a fair shot at success.

A proportional system unlocks debate, it opens the door to everyday concerns being the subject of discussions in our parliaments and in our media. And, because a proportional system of forming governments required compromise between parties, the politicking is completed outside of the debating chamber. This means parliament becomes a place of debate about policy and not about individuals and parties.

Late to the party

The United Kingdom is late by over one hundred years, at delivering its citizens true democracy. If a proportional system of election had been implemented in line with the majority of Europe, i.e., in the 1920s, I believe the United Kingdom would not have been thrown into the disaster of Brexit. The UK would now not be spiralling into the economic and social decline it is.

With a proportional system of electing our UK governments, the citizens of Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England, would have achieved their own national parliaments many decades prior to when these bodies of democracy where actually introduced (and for which England still waits).

An early adoption of a proportional system would have empowered citizens representatives, our members of parliament, to have addressed earlier, the anachronistic institutions that mock the idea of the United Kingdom being a liberal society. Anti-democratic habits of history such as the House of Lords, elitist schools, the Royal family, to name but a few. All would have been done away with long ago.

Who should lead us?

I believe that in answer to the challenge of shaping a United Kingdom which answers our aspirations, we must ask ourselves who do we want to lead us? Millionaires and billionaires (Nigel Farage and Elon Musk) abusing our legitimate frustrations for their egotistical manipulative gratification? Multinational companies (Meta, Amazon, Google) and their CEO’s, focused only on their consumerist world domination? The newspaper and television media, throwing manufactured hate and despair into our daily thoughts?

The old boy network of political and royalist establishment? Who love nothing more than telling us just how grateful we should find ourselves, to be subjugated by their traditions and ideals for our society and our lives lived.

Have we no back bone? Have we not the energy to set ourselves apart from these grifters, these egoists and megalomaniacs? I believe that we have. I for one do not want a continuation of these people directing my life, shaping the society in which I work, raise children and live. That is why, I believe as citizens we have an obligation to promote, support and be active, in all groups and movements who advocate for a proportional system of electing our representatives.

At the 2026 Senedd elections, we will see the power of a proportional system. That vote promises to change Wales’ legislature. But, given the botched nature of devolution, only when we have changed how our MPs in Westminster obtain their jobs, will we, the citizens, be able to start the process of renewing our nation and making the changes that we want and need for our own lives.

Simon Paul Hobson is an approved Parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrats.