Dear Chris,

Firstly, congratulations on your election to Parliament as the MP for Warwick and Leamington.

I'm guessing your first few days there must be a lot like your first few days at secondary school - learning the new systems and protocols, everything being exciting, disconcerting and humbling in equal measures.

But I'm guessing it's also like going to a school where all the teachers are having a bit of a silent protest. Whilst I'm sure it would have been nice to have hit the ground running and started doing some real, political work, I'm guessing we've dealt ourselves a representative government. It's just a shame that, under the current system, it can't seem to do anything with itself.

I don't know which way the alliance will go - whether the Liberal Democrats will side with your party, or whether they'll choose to become part of a 'progressive alliance' with the Labour party, the independents and the other left-of-centre MPs - and I'm guessing that whilst you've probably been sounded out on it, you know little more than us. 

I also don't know how long an alliance will last, whether it will be long enough to truly pass any electoral or political reform, or whether it will gain widespread support. The last thing I want to see is MPs voting in their party's interests over their constituency's interests, however, especially on matters as important as representation.

It's for these reasons that I'm getting in early, before the campaigns for everyone to contact their MP begins, to ask you to support electoral reform. We've got a real chance to change our voting system to a new one, picked from a selection of those which are successfully used in other parts of the world, in Europe, and even here in the UK. It was a proportional voting system which saw Boris Johnson elected as the Mayor of London, and one which saw the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elected fairly, and represented proportionally by their electorate.

Having looked into systems such as Single Transferrable Vote and the Additional Member System (also known as MMP in New Zealand, where it's used for parliamentary elections), I can't help but think something like this, with a fixed-term parliament, where a prime minister is decided by the party who has the greatest number of seats, would work wonders for this country. 

I think the majority of the country would like to see changes to the constitution which make outcomes like this the norm, in which hung parliaments aren't a problem, but an opportunity to shape policy and law based on the wishes of the country. I expect what we'll likely see is an enhanced Alternative Vote (or AV+) system at first, before a full transition to a full proportional representation system. 

It's about time that we saw all of our elected MPs working together, not simply blocking electoral reform because it goes against the wishes of the party. A first hand demonstration that coalition governments can work in the UK, just as they work in other countries around the world. Think about it: under these systems, David Cameron would be Prime Minister, sitting in number 10 by now, leading a democratic government which represented the wishes of the electorate. Sadly, it's not the case, and we're deadlocked in a process where parties are now battling it out to form alliances and gain a majority in the Commons. 

First Past The Post is a broken system, which only allows for massive disparity between representation and the popular vote. I believe it's time for a change.

When we spoke on the phone, prior to the election, you mentioned that if enough of your constituents were concerned about a particular topic, that you would always try to put your constituents' wishes first - even going so far as to go against the party whip.

I can't speak for the entirety of Warwick and Leamington, but I'm sure all of us would like to see a balanced parliament, full of politicians that actually represent our wishes. With that in mind, when the time comes for parliament to vote on electoral reform, please don't waste your vote by not using it, but actually vote in favour of reform.

 
Sincerely,
Anthony Williams

Despite it really only being a two-horse race for me (see Why I won't be voting for James Plaskitt), Warwick and Leamington is really shaping up to be quite the battleground constituency. We've had door knockers for Labour and the Conservatives, I've had email conversations with James Plaskitt and Alan Beddow, and I spoke to Chris White on the phone this evening for a brief chat.

For the Liberal Democrats

Alan Beddow, who has some geek credentials as an IT Project Manager, got in touch on Monday. His email mentioned the Digital Economy Bill specifically, and it was interesting to hear what he had to say on the matter - specifically that Liberal Democrat policy will be to oppose it:

I have also been concerned about the Digital Economy bill and was one of the signatories to an emergency motion at our recent spring conference to debate this issue and we were able to get our policy amended. This was good news as one or two of our Lords and MPs had failed to spot the dangers, and those of us in the IT industry were able to put our case. I am happy to say that after this our party line has been to oppose this bill in its current form.

Alan was also keen to stress what they're planning on doing with regards to cutting waste using IT:

I have taken an active role in this group hosting an event at our party conference last year looking at how we can use IT to deliver better public services at a lower cost to the tax payer. Government IT Projects have had some bad press in recent years and having been involved in some I have a shrewd idea where the issue lies, and its not with the industry.

Having created websites for large companies, bodies in higher education and been involved in the quoting and procurement processes for some government websites in the past, I understand how IT projects can quickly get out of hand, with scope- and feature-creep causing problems when there's not a level head and strong project manager in charge. Even then, they can still spiral out of control.

If the Liberal Democrats get into power - either with a majority or in a coalition government - it will be interesting to see whether or not they can deliver on this - as a geek with the web at my heart, I certainly think it's the right direction to head in.

For the Conservatives

Chris White, a school governor who works in public relations, has no specific geek credentials as far as I can tell, but he does use a Mac, which is no bad thing - but certainly not a solid reason to vote for him. Chris' reply to my email offered nothing in the way of answers to any of my questions, only asking for a telephone number.

I obliged, and shortly after returning from my karate class, he called. For just over five minutes, we discussed listening to constituents, and Chris told me that if people take the time to call and get involved with an issue, then he would certainly make sure that he used his vote in parliament, going so far as to say that if enough of his constituents were supportive of or opposed to a particular topic, he'd suppot them, even if it went against the party line.

What now?

Both Chris and Alan were keen not to dismiss James or the Labour Party, and both spoke about what they would do, rather than attacking policies or practices of the other parties. I didn't get the chance to push Chris on his party's tactics of using very negative billboard advertising in the area - the smiling Gordon Brown posters - but then the Labour party are just as guilty of snide, useless advertising - "building a foundation vs. wearing it" springs to mind.

I'm going to be mulling it over right up until next Wednesday evening when I'm going to make my decision, but as the image above suggests, I think the Liberal Democrats are just edging out in front at the moment.