A View on Democracy

We asked our friends over at West Country Voices to give a view on democracy in Devon:

It’s been an exciting eighteen months for the team at South Devon Primary, the community-driven movement to select one progressive candidate behind whom to unite to defeat the Conservative.

Following seven packed-out town halls across the constituency, progressive voters now have their champion – the Liberal Democrat, Caroline Voaden. She was elected by 78.4% of the 1072 who attended the sessions and supported by thousands more who are getting behind the process.

What started this off?

This grassroots initiative was designed by its three founders, Simon Oldridge, Ben Long and Anthea Simmons, as a much-needed sticking plaster for our broken electoral system.

First-past-the-post has meant that there are seats up and down the country where there has been no change in the colour of the winners’ rosette for decades and in Totnes/South Devon’s case, more than 100 years. Around 25 per cent of those registered to vote here simply didn’t bother in 2019 and who can blame them, when the outcome is considered a fait accompli? ‘What’s the point?’ was a refrain heard too many times on streets right across the constituency.

It is difficult to capture in words the electric atmosphere

The Plan

The primary was designed to give voters a reason to vote. In the hope of transforming the seat from a potential ‘progressive tragedy’ (with a Conservative win on a minority vote made possible by a divided progressive opposition), to a progressive triumph: a win for a candidate representing shared values and priorities of the majority of constituents and capable of inspiring the disillusioned and disaffected to reclaim their power as voters.

Making it happen

It’s no mean feat to get more than a thousand people to come out to a meeting when the weather is foul and the topic is politics, but such is the anger and frustration with this government and the hunger for change and democracy that the seven halls buzzed and people poured out of the meetings, energised and optimistic, just as the founders had hoped.
As one attendee wrote in an email to the team:
“It is difficult to capture in words the electric atmosphere, the intense interest, the total engagement on the part of the audience. We’ve been given a vision of a brighter future, facilitated by a voting strategy which will ensure that the candidate elected genuinely represents the interests, beliefs and aspirations of the majority of the local electorate. Thank you, South Devon Primary, for granting me that vision… and the belief that one day it CAN become reality.”

We’ve been given a vision of a brighter future

The next steps

So what happens next? Well, we all mobilise behind our champion! We door-knock, canvass, stick up posters in our windows, spread the word, make that vision a reality and get an MP elected who will put the constituents’ needs and concerns ahead of the demands of wealthy donors and lobbyists who promote the interests of fossil fuel companies, property developers, private healthcare providers and right-wing ideologues.

Viable?

It’s quite a challenge, but it’s eminently do-able and there’s now an army of people fully engaged, many for the first time in their lives, and determined to get that win!
As one attendee said
“This is not about being undemocratic, unlike what our MP is saying. It’s about making democracy work for once.”

 

West Country Voices is a regional online newspaper powered by citizen journalism. Providing a means by which local people in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset can share their stories and interests and raise the profile of issues impacting on their lives