The Financial Times interviewed me on how the UK’s current electoral system holds back action on the climate crisis.
I told the FT that “the climate crisis isn’t just a market failure, it’s a failure of democracy”.
I also told them that I see First Past the Post as the cause of a “political bottleneck”.
This is because First Past the Post incentivises a disproportionate focus on swing seats and their constituents. This has reduced the scope of political debate and given a minority of voters more influence over the political agenda and election outcomes than would be the case if every vote counted equally.
I also addressed the idea that proportional representation would risk giving more extreme viewpoints a platform in Westminster. When you look at the extreme positions of this current Government, I believe making our elections more democratic would reduce, not increase, the over-representation of extreme views.
I told the FT: “This idea that you keep extremism out of politics with first-past-the-post is frankly ridiculous when looking at the government we have now”.
Indeed, the Conservatives are currently able to dominate Westminster politics despite not having a backing from the majority of the public in the last a General Election. This is blocking the progressive majority from being fairly represented.