Have Cable and Co. killed PR?

Of all the policies they want to see enacted, unquestionably the Holy Grail for the Liberal Democrats is voting reform. It’s worth asking if the past few days have ended the chances of this happening.

The one obvious ‘benefit’ the Liberal Democrats secured from the Coalition Agreement with the Conservatives was to have a referendum on introducing a mild form of proportional representation (PR), the Alternative Vote.

For all the arguments for and against PR, supporters and those opposed generally agree on one thing: they will result in more coalition governments as votes and so parliamentary seats are more evenly shared between parties.

However the past few days may have began to suggest to the public that coalition government cannot work and is inherently a ‘bad thing’. Whilst it's still true that no member of the public will be shocked at news politicians disagree, constant fall outs and public disputeswithin government help no-one.

So how might the electorate then react? There have already been suggestions that they will vote against the Alternative Vote in next May’s referendum as a protest against what they see as Liberal Democrat betrayals since joining the coalition.

However media stories of the past few days that many Liberal Democrats are going along with policies they hate simply to stay in government will surely further alienate the public. And this must then be an extra nail in PR’s coffin.

If the instability we currently see – albeit one which could be a temporary Christmas story and then disappear once we are into 2011 – is going to be more regularly repeated and indeed magnified in future coalitions then the public may wish to stop them happening.

The most obvious way to do this is reject a system which makes it more likely, and then potentially revert back to two-party politics at the next General Election, giving one party a decisive mandate.

‘Be careful what you wish for’ is an old saying warning people that what they want may not be what they need. The Lib Dems entering government as a coalition with the Conservatives at this time may be an excellent example of this in practice.

If it ends up costing them voting reform it may be an action they never forgive themselves – or Nick Clegg and Vince Cable – for.