In the 2024 election, there was no-one to vote for

if this is democracy, I'm a pineapple

There was a general election in Britain in July 2024. I contend that for many voters there was no-one to vote for, by which I mean there was no candidate that shared their views on things they thought important.

To see this, consider the following five propositions:

(A) Brexit was a failure, so we should rejoin the EU

(B) the economy should work for everyone, not just the rich

(C) we should support Ukraine, and stop Putin

(D) reduce immigration, particularly illegal immigration, and anyone in Britain illegally should be removed

(E) replace FPTP with proportional representation for Westminster elections

What do these 5 things have in common? For each of them, most British voters agree. But if you agree with them all, you had no-one to vote for in the recent UK general election.

Taking all the parties that got elected in Britain one by one:

• Labour agreed with B and C but were against A, D and E.

• the Conservatives were against A, B and E. They said they favoured D but their actions in power were the opposite. They were quite strong on Ukraine however, about the only thing they did right.

• the Liberal Democrats wanted closer ties with the EU but not to rejoin. They agreed with B, C and E, but are against D.

• Reform UK were very much against A, They were probably less against B than the Tories. They were for D and E. They were against C; indeed the words "Ukraine" and "Russia" don't occur in their manifesto.

• the Greens favoured A, B and E. They were against D. On C they said they will "continue to support Ukraine" but want UK to give up its nukes which is contrary to that.

• the SNP favoured A, B, C and E. They are broadly against D.

• Plaid Cymru supported A, B, C and E. They are against D.

None of the parties want what the people want, and I doubt if any of them have the answers to ending British decline either (which is a separate but related issue).

Two of the parties (Conservatives and Labour) are explicitly anti-democratic and explicitly against UK being ruled in accordance to what the voters want, because they favour FPTP which is an undemocratic voting system. Part of why they favour FPTP is they depend on it for their survival: both Labour and the Tories are widely unpopular and they know it. The last time the UK had a nationwide election on a semi-proportional system, in 2019, Labour got 13.7%, their worst vote share in over a century, and the Tories only got 8.8% of the vote, their worst result in the history of the party.

Why this is bad

The five issues listed above are ones I personally care about. On all of these issues my position is roughly the same as the majority of the British public opinion. Therefore if the UK is a democracy, I ought to get what I want on these issues.

But regardless of how I, or anyone else, voted, the party that won the election was not going to go what the public wanted on all these issues. This is because no party supported all these issues.

Of course, there could have been a coalition, but even then it's hit and miss what policies they would support.

Other voters no doubt cared about other issues. I think that it's reasonable that if most voters want a particular policy, then most of the parliamentarians who get elected should also want that policy.

What's the solution?

Firstly, use a proportional voting system. I like STV with top-ups to increase proportionality. But a list system without a threshold, as they use in the Netherlands, would also be OK. Thresholds are bad because they reduce the number of parties that get elected, which means voters have less choice.

Secondly, have more referendums. There could be a situation where enough signatures on a petition could force a referendum on an issue. Or when parliament passes a law, give the electorate 6 months to collect signatures on a petition to have a referendum on the new law passed.

Another way of triggering a referendum might be if a certain number of MPs, say 20%, want one on an issue, then that issue goes to a referendum.

All three of these mechanisms would mean that the government could no longer ignore public opinion.