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Lib Dem candidate Stone pledges support for a fairer vote





Liberal Democrat candidate Jamie Stone.
Liberal Democrat candidate Jamie Stone.

Liberal Democrat candidate Jamie Stone has pledged to campaign for a fairer voting system across the UK.

Mr Stone, who is hoping to hold the seat of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross at next month's general election, supports a system of proportional representation (PR) being put in place for future nationwide polls.

Currently the UK elections are run by the "first past the post" (FPTP) system where the candidate with the highest vote wins.

However, many a seat – and also a national result – has been "won" whereby a candidate wins but does not get 50 per cent plus one of the vote.

The Liberal Democrats in 2011 tried to introduce a form of PR – the alternative vote (AV) system – when they were in a coalition government with the Conservatives.

A UK-wide referendum was held, only for two-thirds of the electorate to reject AV which critics said was no fairer than FPTP.

Elections for the Scottish Parliament use the additional member system (AMS) but it is the single transferable vote (STV) framework – as used in both the north of Ireland and the Irish Republic – that Mr Stone and the Lib Dems want in place.

Mr Stone, who supports the cross-party Make Votes Matter campaign in Westminster, said: "Our political system needs a total overhaul. It is an indefensible system which produces unrepresentative results.

"Your vote shouldn’t count differently depending on which constituency you live in.

"The Liberal Democrats have long campaigned to fix this and I spoke on the issue many times when in parliament. If re-elected I will continue to fight for a fairer, more representative voting system.

To me, that is an improvement in democracy and in the representation of the people.

"We know this can be achieved – in Scotland we already have a form of proportional representation to elect MSPs, and we need to work to ensure that all across the UK every vote counts and people are not disenfranchised because of a flawed voting system.

"The Lib Dems want to see a better politics, one that is more representative, more co-operative and more diverse. Only then can we build a brighter future."

Mr Stone has long been an advocate of PR being introduced for UK general elections.

In a debate on this issue in the House of Commons in April 2019, he said: "When I was first a Highland councillor, I was a single member for a ward, and I had the ward discretionary fund – a pot of £40,000 or £50,000 – which I could dish out to good causes in my ward without really checking with anyone at all. It was like having the power of a medieval prince.

"When I became a councillor again after having been in the Scottish Parliament, there was this thing called the single transferable vote, and I had to share the ward with two other members. Oh, horror! How difficult.

"My favourite charities did not necessarily get the money I wanted to give them. I had to argue it out with the other two members of the ward.

"To me, that is an improvement in democracy and in the representation of the people. I was more accountable under the wider PR system than before. That was my experience of local government."


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