By Theo Elliott

For decades, the British political establishment has continued to assert its near-total control over UK politics via the collective consensus of the uniparty to uphold the out-of-date first-past-the-post electoral system. In spite of LibLabCon purporting to be supportive of further European integration, they have nonetheless neglected to follow suit with the implementation of a proportional representation voting system like almost every other country in Europe has. This is likely out of fear of the success enjoyed by other Patriotic Nationalist parties in European countries that use proportional representation. Thus, the political establishment has impeded any realistic threat posed by a Patriotic Nationalist party to their monopoly over the electorate, preventing any chance of real change offered by an authentic alternative to the liberal-globalist status quo, and disenfranchising millions of patriotic Britons.

The promise of electoral reform was one of countless let-downs of the Blair premiership, which only implemented such changes in devolved and European elections, while utterly ignoring the recommendation of the government’s own Jenkins Commission to implement an entirely new voting system known as AV+ (a combination of ranked-choice voting with the Additional Member System used in Scotland, Wales, and London). And although the devolved and European elections provided some success for parties like UKIP, the BNP, and the Greens; they nonetheless failed to make any real foothold in Westminster. And this was all completely intentional; the fact that Labour only required just over one third of the national popular vote in order to secure a comfortable majority in the House of Commons surely made the notion of electoral reform far less appealing to Blair and Brown. It should be no surprise, then, that the decades of neglectance to even attempt to update the voting system for General Elections has been due to entirely opportunistic political purposes.

Arguably the closest the UK has ever come to any degree of Westminster election reform was during the Cameron-Clegg coalition government, which produced a referendum on the Alternative Vote (AV) system in 2011. However, this paltry version of electoral reform provided no assurance of smaller parties receiving a seat share even remotely equivalent to their vote share; it would merely extend the vote-counting period to ensure that each MP has the support of the majority of their constituents (which, if anything, would make it even harder for third parties to capture any seats). The referendum was also completely politically-motivated, as the Conservatives ensured that the only option on the ballot would be an unproportional and less popular system, and their reluctant Liberal Democrat coalition partners obliged out of desire to increase their own chances of winning more seats while hindering that of smaller third parties. Thus, the AV referendum was opposed by third parties that many erroneously argued would benefit from its passage, such as the BNP, the Respect Party, and a number of Northern Irish parties.

The wide margin by which this referendum was rejected has enabled the government to disregard any calls for genuine electoral reform to this day. And the virtually insurmountable barrier to any meaningful electoral representation on a national level has remained in-place for Patriotic Nationalist third parties. The most glaring example being in the 2015 general election, in which UKIP was at its very peak of popularity, but nonetheless returned a single MP despite receiving nearly four million votes. The notion that a right-of-centre nationalist third party has a realistic chance of attaining anywhere near as much electoral success in the UK as their European equivalents do is gravely mistaken. Even if they portray themselves as moderate, centre-right, libertarian, civic nationalists like UKIP and its interchangeable hotchpotch of splinters. Even if they attain nationwide recognition, appear in nationally televised debates, and contest almost every constituency in the country. If UKIP couldn’t pull it off in 2015, then who can?

This article is not intended to be a blackpill, however. Quite the opposite, in fact. Because sentiment for proportional representation remains strong, and if a Lib-Lab coalition or something to that effect brings about any meaningful reform to the Parliamentary voting system, then Patriotic Nationalist parties will have a historic opportunity to capture seats in the House of Commons and potentially even exert some meaningful political influence. But in the meantime, the most efficient course of action is to build up groups of dedicated and experienced activists who cooperate to mobilise local support in potentially sympathetic communities. Even a small handful of local or parish council seats is a sufficient starting point, and right now the British Democrats remain the only Patriotic Nationalist party with any electoral representation whatsoever, as well as the only one with a democratic constitution where its members have a real voice.

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