Transcript

NARRATOR:

The Houses of Parliament, known also as the Palace of Westminster, has for centuries been the centre of our political system. We have two Houses of Parliament, the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

It is the role of both houses, or chambers as they’re often referred to, to work together to represent the people of the United Kingdom. They both help in framing new laws, scrutinising government policy, and debating the major issues of the day.

DAVID CAMERON:

It’s only our first exchange, and already the prime minister is asking me the questions. This approach is stuck in the past, and I want to talk about the future.

NARRATOR:

The House of Lords is made up of a mixture of representatives, some chosen by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister and others who have inherited their seat. Like the Commons, they scrutinise government policy and debate major issues. However, most of their time is spent revising and amending the government’s proposals for new laws. But it is in the House of Commons where the real business of lawmaking takes place, decisions that affect every person in the country.

POLITICIAN:

I certainly can say, as I said before, that it’s important that all schools get these freedoms. However, it is obvious that we disagree on the issue of admissions.

NARRATOR:

The House of Commons is made up of 646 people called Members of Parliament or MPs. The MPs represent 646 areas of the United Kingdom known as constituencies and are usually members of a political party. There are three main political parties. Firstly, there is Labour, who currently has the most members of Parliament.

As Labour has the majority of seats, it forms the government. Next there are the Conservatives, who have the second biggest total of MPs and so are referred to as the official opposition. And finally the Liberal Democrats, who have the third most seats. The other seats are made up of smaller parties. The election process can seem complicated. But in the UK, it’s based on a very simple premise. It’s referred to as the first-past-the-post system.

ADAM MELLOWS-FACER:

We have 646 MPs. And effectively a general election we have 646 separate elections in each constituency. And the votes in each constituency are tallied up, and whoever gets the most votes in that constituency wins a seat. Candidates tend to represent parties, and then when all these 646 MPs are brought together, the party with the most successful candidates will form the government.

NARRATOR:

As there are 646 constituencies, so the party that makes it first past the post of 324 seats becomes the government. Looking at the 2005 general election under the first past the post system, Labour won 355 seats. The Conservatives won 198 seats. And the Liberal Democrats won 62 seats.

First past the post is a clear and simple way to hold an election, as each voter only has to place one cross on the ballot paper. As a result, one MP is elected, and the people of that constituency know who to speak to if they have an issue they want resolving, regardless of which party they represent.

So, according to the first-past-the-post system, the political party that wins the most seats gets to run the country. But how do MPs win a constituency in order to gain a seat in Parliament? Usually, members of Parliament are elected once every four or five years when the government of the day calls a general election. This is when the whole country gets the chance to vote for the person or party they want to represent them in Parliament.

If you want to represent your area, first you have to be selected by your chosen party. In order to get elected, you need to run a campaign to inform voters in your constituency not just of your personal views, but your party’s views too. This is because voters will sometimes choose to vote for a candidate not because of who they are but because the party they represent shares similar views to their own.

You can also choose to stand as an independent candidate. Often, this means you represent a political cause or a local issue rather than a party. The following story shows what happened in the English town of Watford during the last general election in May, 2005.

As the election in Watford is very close, the battle is attracting national interest. So the main candidates come together for a significant and very public part of the campaign, a live national TV debate.

MAN:

This is Claire Ward.

CLAIRE WARD:

Hi.

NARRATOR:

Claire Ward, who has been the member of Parliament for Watford since 1997, represents the Labour Party. She has strong views about democracy and using our vote.

CLAIRE WARD:

Everybody’s vote makes a difference, and I think it’s appalling when people say that they’re not going to vote. We all have a responsibility in our society to determine what kind of community we’re going to live in. And because of that, we need to have a say. And on May 5th or indeed after any election, you’re going to end up with a government, or a council, or a local council or whatever it is that’s being elected.

And it’s important that ordinary people vote. If ordinary, normal people don’t vote, then you will always find that those who have an agenda, those who have perhaps very strong beliefs often not representative of the rest, will vote. And that’s not good for any society.

NARRATOR:

However, as the Labour Party is also in government, so she might be held accountable by local people for the government’s decisions. In this case, tensions have been running high over the recent Iraq War.

CLAIRE WARD:

They’ve already decided whether they agreed with that war or not. The arguments about whether the legality of it and the details of advice that was given by the Attorney General or not given are the sort of things that are playing out in newspapers and playing out in the media. I think that we made the right decision.

I think that we made it based upon a number of different factors. And what’s most important to me is that we now have an Iraq where it is being rebuilt, where the people in that country have an opportunity to vote for their own government, and where they’re free from Saddam Hussein. And I think that’s crucially important to the people of Iraq.

ALI MIRAJ:

This was a war where 100,000 innocent people have died. This was a war that we were taken to on the basis of a dossier that was essentially cobbled together. This was a war where we’ve actually been taken to war on the basis of advice which now appears not to have been unequivocal, as suggested. And I believe that we were wrong to go to war.

NARRATOR:

Ali Miraj is representing the Conservative Party. He plans to win the seat back from Labour after Claire Ward took it from the Conservatives in 1997.

ALI MIRAJ:

The last few weeks, what we’ve been doing is a lot of door to door knocking, canvassing, meeting voters on an individual basis trying to convince them that we’re the party for them. And we’ve done a lot of that now and have also had very good press coverage. The real challenge now is to get out our support.

We’ve got enough pledges to win the election in Watford. But it’s not simply enough to have loads of people out there who on paper say they’re going to vote Conservative. Now they’ve got to get out of their houses and put their X on that ballot paper. Because if they don’t, it’s all academic.

That’s going to be a big push on polling day as well. We’ll be up very early in the morning getting out a polling day leaflet as well, saying, look, today’s the day. This is your big chance. You’ve got the power to decide.

We’re doing a morning interview, and I’m actually going to be with my opponents, the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party from Watford. We’re doing a kind of an interview of sorts. An issue about trust again and the Prime Minister is again being brought up, which I think will probably come up on the TV today.

It’s quite right for him to actually bring up the issue of trust in the Prime Minister. That issue is coming up on the doorsteps in Watford. And also, this is a seat where we need a 6.2 per cent swing to win it off Labour. And that’s what we’re working towards, and I’m confident that we’re going to get it.

SAL BRINTON:

Trust, and the Prime Minister is playing on the doorstep. Time after time, day after day, people say to me that they no longer trust the Prime Minister. And that’s not just Liberal Democrats. I’m hearing in Watford a lot of people saying they actually want to see a change, and a vote for the Lib Dems in Watford is actually a strong message to Tony Blair.

DOREEN FORD:

Hello.

SAL BRINTON:

Hello, Doreen Ford?

DOREEN FORD:

Yes.

SAL BRINTON:

I’m Sal Brinton. I’m your Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate.

NARRATOR:

Sal Brinton makes up the third challenger from the main political parties. Although the Liberal Democrats are the smallest of the main parties, Sal is confident that she can win this seat.

SAL BRINTON:

We’re clearly the challengers to the sitting MP. Everybody in Watford knows that. You only have to drive around the town and see that we have 10 times the number of posters than the other two parties who are fighting the seat alongside us.

But not just that, every time we stop on the doorstep, people come out, and they say, hello, Sal. I’m behind you. I’m backing you. We’re switching to you. So we’re getting a very strong message from the people of Watford that this time they want a change. They want someone who's going to be a strong voice for Watford in Parliament.

INTERVIEWER:

Environmental issues haven’t really played any part in the selection so far. Is that the kind of thing that you campaign on on the streets and are well received for it?

STEPHEN RACKETT:

Certainly it is. Traffic pollution has increased substantially over the last eight years.

NARRATOR:

Stephen Rackett represents the Green Party. Although his chances of being elected are slim, he still feels it is important to stand.

STEPHEN RACKETT:

There are two reasons. The first one is if we’re not there, the other parties certainly won’t talk about climate change. You have to actually cost them votes to make sure that they keep it on the agenda for not just this year but for the next five or 10 years. And there’s another reason, and that’s to gain support for, for example, in this election there’s also local elections going on at the same time.

And Greens and smaller parties tend to do much better at those local elections. And we find by standing in the Parliamentary election, it raises our profile. We get a television broadcast and a lot more coverage because we’ve got 200 candidates standing across the country. And that benefits our profile and our profile in the local elections which are happening at the same time.

NARRATOR:

After all the weeks of candidates trying to gain support, the day of the election arrives. This is the day the country is allowed to vote. In the United Kingdom, most people are allowed to vote when they reach the age of 18. Each year, every household receives an electoral registration form on which to list those people who are or are about to be 18.

When an election is called, ballot papers are sent to all those on the electoral register, which entitles them to vote in an election. Most people cast their vote in person or at a polling station, often located in a town hall or school, although postal voting also takes place. The vote is referred to as a secret ballot, as it takes place in a private booth.

Voters are asked to place a cross beside the name of the candidate they want to represent them in the House of Commons. They then place their paper in a ballot box. When the polling stations close at 10 PM, the ballot boxes are collected for counting. The count takes place in a large building, often a town hall. The ballot boxes are emptied onto tables, and volunteers count each one to check who has gained the most votes.

SAL BRINTON:

It’s really important to vote because we undervalue democracy in this country. This is our chance, every single person’s chance, to say what they think about the government and the way our public services are run. So if you’ve got a mum who has been waiting for a bed in a hospital for a while, or if you think you need more police on your streets, then you can actually say to each of the parties, I support you or I don’t support you. Now, without that, our democracy would completely fall to pieces.

ALI MIRAJ:

Well, I think it’s actually going to be a very interesting evening because my friend, Justine Greening, just got elected in Putney with a 60 per cent swing to the Tories, which is fantastic news for us. So it looks like it might be a very good night for the Conservatives, which is great. Too early to tell how it’s all going to pan out, but that's a very, very good indication for us that we’re going to have a good night.

NARRATOR:

Once the votes are all counted, the result is announced by the returning officer. He is in charge of making sure everything is fair.

RETURNING OFFICER:

Brinton, Sal, Liberal Democrats, 15,427. Miraj, Ali, the Conservative Party candidate, 14,634. Rackett, Stephen Bottoms, commonly known as Steve, Green party, 1466. Ford, Claire Margaret, the Labour party candidate, 16,575.

[CHEERS]

I declare [INAUDIBLE] Claire Margaret Ward to assume the [INAUDIBLE].

NARRATOR:

The result is close, but Claire Ward representing the Labour Party was again elected to represent the people of Watford. The Labour Party gained Watford and also the most seats around the country and therefore became the government once more.

CLAIRE WARD:

It’s fantastic to have been returned as the member of Parliament for Watford, something we’ve been fighting for really for the last four years since the last general election, even though it's gotten much harder in the last few weeks before the campaign. But it’s great to be back.

NARRATOR:

These election night scenes are being repeated in 645 other constituencies all over the United Kingdom.

RETURNING OFFICER:

Justine Greening, the Conservative Party candidate, 15,000.

NARRATOR:

In the London area of Putney, Conservative Party candidate Justine Greening has been elected to serve her constituency for the very first time.

JUSTINE GREENING:

It felt quite relaxed on election night because I knew that we’d done as much as we could. A lot of what I enjoy about politics is the democracy side of it. So, actually giving people a choice and that process of getting your message across to people, saying there’s an alternative to the one you currently have, is valuable in itself.

We ran a very local campaign. I think people are so, in many respects, switched off from politics that I think the one thing that they feel they can hold their local MPs and candidates accountable is what they do right there in the constituency. So I work very hard on a whole range of issues in Putney.

Really whatever our local priorities were, they became my priorities as an MP because half of the role is actually ensuring that you’re locked into your local constituency, you know what’s going on. Because if you’re really in touch with everything going on around you back in your constituency, then you’re much better placed to represent all of those issues here in Parliament.

NARRATOR:

Meanwhile, across in Kingston and Surbiton, Liberal Democrat Ed Davey faced an equally anxious wait.

ED DAVEY:

It’s very exciting. You’ve worked for many, many months and then very intensively for the last few weeks. And suddenly you reach the climax. And I guess it’s like doing an exam that eventually after all that hard work it pays off.

NARRATOR:

After the winner is announced on election night, that person then becomes the member of Parliament until the government decides to call another general election, when the whole process begins again. But for Justine, Claire, and Ed, getting elected was just the first challenge. Now they have to begin the hard work of being an MP.

CLAIRE WARD:

Well, the member of Parliament has a responsibility to represent the interests of their constituents, those people who elect them. And that isn’t just the people that actually vote for you but all of your constituents, whether they voted at all or they voted for other political parties. And your responsibility is split between your work in the House of Commons and also your work in constituency.

So, in the House of Commons, you might be taking part in legislation, debates, looking through new legislation, or bills as we like to call them, line by line. Or you might be asking questions of the government.

The people and the residents of Watford are not seeing as much benefit as they would like to because they would wish to see them extended and ensure that the funding for the community support officers that we have now carries on. Can he give that assurance?

POLITICIAN:

Well, I can assure my honourable friend that there are 20,000 extra community support officers that will be delivered if this government is returned to office.

JUSTINE GREENING:

The breadth of what you get to deal with as an MP is incredible. So, I deal with everything – immigration, housing, crime, the environment, planning issues that people are upset about. For example, the smoking ban, well, I’ve had hundreds of letters on it. And that really makes me think as an MP about what people in my constituency think about that issue and what I should do in order to represent them as a constituency MP.

I actually spent quite a lot of time going around to a lot of my local schools in sixth form. And I think one of the most challenging public meetings I did was with my local sixth form. And they asked some very insightful and difficult questions, frankly, before the elections.

ED DAVEY:

It’s quite a lot of work actually. I think people don’t realise how much work we actually do, not just in the House of Commons but in the constituencies, including in the evenings or weekends. So, I think MPs from all parties do work pretty hard.

What would be the real issue that you would determine your vote, how you would vote in an election? Have you got a thing that really concerns you most? Crime?

STUDENT:

And sometimes I do because I walk home by myself from school.

ED DAVEY:

You’re working both at very low-level issues – people’s drains, their trees, their pavements when you’re trying to work with them and the council to get little day-to-day problems fixed. And then the next minute, you might be in front of a camera or in the House debating something like Iraq, or freedom of information, reform of the House of Lords, a real big national policy issue.

NARRATOR:

The role of an MP is vital to ensure our democratic process. However, not everyone is totally convinced that we’ve got the process of choosing our members of Parliament right.

ED DAVEY:

Well, Liberal Democrats are very keen on changing our electoral system because we think it’s basically unfair. People’s votes don’t count the same. You can be in some parts of the country where if you vote Labour, you’ll never get a Labour MP and your vote is wasted.

And other parts you can vote Conservative or Liberal Democrats and your vote is wasted because you’ll never return under first-past-the-post system, the current system, a member of your choice. But there are forms of proportional representation, which Liberal Democrats support, that ensure that votes are more equal and have a voting system that’s fair.

ADAM MELLOWS-FACER:

The alternatives to first past the post are called proportional representation. They aim for a system which more fairly reflects the views of the electorate, the preferences of the electorate. The purest form of proportional representation would be to have one constituency across the whole of the UK, and seats would be allocated purely in proportion to the votes cast for each party across the country.

NARRATOR:

So, if the United Kingdom introduced proportional representation instead of first-past-the-post system, how would that have affected the 2005 general election result? A majority government requires more than half of the seats in Parliament. In 2005, there were 646 seats available, and using the first-past-the-post system, Labour won 355 of them with just over 35% of the votes cast.

The Conservatives won 198 with 32 per cent of the vote. And the Liberal Democrats won 62 with 22 per cent. Assuming voting patterns would have been the same, in a pure proportional representation system, the result of the 2005 general election would result in 227 Labour seats, 128 fewer than they have now.

The Conservative Party would have seen their number of seats increase by 11, and Liberal Democrats, 80 seats, more than doubling their representation. The Green Party, who did not win a single seat under first past the post, would have won 7 seats under this proportional representation system. Other smaller parties would also gain seats in the House.

Though individual independent candidates might have less chance of becoming a member of Parliament. Although even with these figures, the Labour Party would still be the largest party and so would be invited to form a government by teaming up with one or more smaller parties. This is called forming a coalition.

ADAM MELLOWS-FACER:

Another argument in favour of using PR is that by adopting a system where everybody’s vote counts, people are more likely to vote. Unlike in Australia, people in the UK aren’t obliged to vote at elections. And in the 2005 general election, only 61 per cent of those entitled to vote did so.

NARRATOR:

Given that proportional representation gives smaller parties a larger say in the way the country is governed, it is perhaps no surprise where support for its introduction comes.

ED DAVEY:

Mr Blair’s Labour government was elected by 35 per cent of the people who voted. That’s the lowest mandate of any modern British government in history. That cannot be right. That undermines democracy and the legitimacy of a government. And actually, I would say that people who voted in May 2005 should be very angry because they haven’t got what they voted for.

NARRATOR:

And it’s perhaps even less of a surprise who opposes its introduction.

CLAIRE WARD:

I think if you look around the rest of the world, you often see governments that have been determined by proportionate systems as being in coalition. They rarely have enough seats in their legislature to form a government, a one party. And they’re forced into coalition perhaps with two or three other smaller parties. I think that’s a betrayal to the public because at that point, people are getting something that they didn’t quite vote for. They’re getting a watered down version of what they voted for.

JUSTINE GREENING:

But there’s no doubt that one of the great benefits of the current system is that people vote for a person, and they will put their cross against a name. Now, some people say, well, that’s just a name with a party, so I’m a Conservative MP. But when you think about it, people do vote for the person.

And we have George Galloway who decided they didn’t want to fit into any of the main parties, started their own political party, and got elected. What I’d like about the system is that we all have our accountability to our electorate who vote for us. And I think that’s very clear cut, and I think that’s good.

NARRATOR:

The government has agreed to hold a review of the voting system looking at all the different forms of electing our MPs. So it’s possible the electorate may soon get to have their say in the final decision. The general election can often seem a lengthy process. But that is because the role of an MP is so important.

MPs get to make new laws and amend existing ones. They are entrusted with being our voice in Parliament, and they also get to hold the government to account when they feel they have done something wrong. This is why voting is so important.

JUSTINE GREENING:

I’m really keen on trying to get people as switched onto politics as possible and to know that it’s them and not about a load of crusty old people sat in the Commons.

ED DAVEY:

So voting is crucial so people can have their say and can feel that the democratic institutions are responsive to them. Because I believe in the main they are. I can assure you as a consistency member of Parliament, I take the views of my constituents very seriously.

CLAIRE WARD

I think politics is a little bit like a football game. You have a choice in life. You can either stand on the sidelines and shout at the players on the field and tell them how to score the goals and how to play the game, or you can be a participant, and you can be on that field, and you can be part of that team, and can help to score the goals.

And being part of the team in politics is either simply voting for someone who’s going to make a decision, going out there and casting your vote for a political party, or it’s really getting involved.

NARRATOR:

The MP selected from your area represents you. If their voice is one that you don’t agree with, you have the power to change it for one that you do. It is your right to do so. But it’s also a privilege that some other citizens around the world aren’t so lucky to enjoy.