By IRNA
London : Former British minister Frank Field warned Monday that the country’s democratic institutions are suffering a crisis of legitimacy and needed drastic reform.
“Unless British democracy is overhauled comprehensively and at every level, the danger is that in a generation’s time national elections will go the way of local elections with only a minority of people participating,” Field said.
“That would be an indictment of today’s politicians who saw the danger and did little or nothing to counter the electorate’s understandable apathy,” he said.
In a paper for the Policy Exchange, the veteran MP proposed a series of radical changes, including the introduction of US-style primaries to select candidates standing in parliamentary elections.
He also suggested adopting a French-style two-stage election process so that only candidates with over 50 per cent of the votes are returned and further called for police chiefs and housing association heads to be elected.
Field, a former welfare reform minister in Prime Minister Tony Blair’s first government, pointed out that democracy in the UK suffered a crisis of legitimacy, with the turnout in elections plunging from around 75 per cent in the 1980s to just 60 per cent.
He said he detected widespread cynicism among voters about the machinations of the political class, elected by just a few thousand that actually determine the result.
In an era when voters have become more ‘rational’ rather than motivated very largely by class interests, the 65-year old MP believed turnouts will continue to slide unless voters, especially in ‘safe’ seats, feel they can influence the body politic.
His other proposals included making parliament more responsive and responsible to voters and reforming the unelected House of Lords upper chamber to make it representative of the various sectional interests in society.
“Over the past forty years voters have begun to walk away from ownership of our democracy. During the last ten years this walk has begun to take on the appearance of a stampede,” Field said.