Local Make Votes Matter to hold meeting on Tuesday

The Hastings branch of Make Votes Matter, the cross-party campaign group for proportional representation, is holding a joint meeting with the Lewes branch on Tuesday 2 November. Items will include report-backs from the Labour Party and Unite Union conferences. Nick Terdre reports.

Make Votes Matter Lewes was formed last year as the movement to replace the incumbent first-past-the-post system for general and other elections in Britain with some form of proportional representation wins more adherents. PR is seen as a means of ensuring that political parties secure a share of seats reflecting the size of their vote.

The UK has the dubious distinction of being the only country in Europe which uses FPTP to choose its government apart from Belarus.

The Lewes group will be combining forces with the Hastings group for their first joint meeting, to be held online, on Tuesday 2 November, 6-7pm.

Surrinder Chera, chair of MVM Hastings, will report back on debates on PR held at the recent Labour Party and Unite Union conferences. “PR was debated as the second most popular motion submitted for discussion at the Labour Party conference,” he told HOT.

“Much progress was made, and much more needs to be done.” FPTP remains Labour’s official policy although support for PR within the party has reached significant levels. “I think now we can say beyond doubt, that the membership of Labour are at least 80% in favour of PR,” Chera said.

Hazel Fell, chair of MVM Lewes, will also talk about compassionate campaigning, a topic which is especially timely in the light of the recent murder of Conservative MP Sir David Amess, Chera said.

Fell has written about the challenges faced by the Lewes group when, shortly after it was formed, it found itself having to campaign under conditions of lockdown. (https://sussexbylines.co.uk/compassionate-campaigning-learning-how-to-connect-in-a-time-of-distance/)

The meeting will also be given a briefing on the STV – single transferable vote, a form of PR which is used, for example, in some union elections – by James Prentice, a political science researcher at the University of Sussex.

Some time will also be devoted to considering possible actions for the MVM action day in December.

Click here to join the meeting – all are welcome.

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