By Rumy Vakarelska
The number of Lords in the British Parliament early this week has been increased by 29 (14 Conservative, 5 Labour and 10 Lib Dem), reaching the biggest number of unelected politicians ever in British history. The Lords now has 783 members, while David Cameron is planning to increase this number by 50. These numbers in addition to 650 MPs makes the UK Parliament the second-largest legislature in the world after the Chinese National People’s Congress, according to the Daily Telegraph.
All this means that Corbyn’s rise serves as a badly needed balancing act in UK politics and decision making, which effects every day’s lives, so r egistering to vote for the new Labour’s leader is a small step to help this happen. Voting applications close on 14 August at 3 pm, however changes of this deadline may occur, so everyone who is a British voter can help making history http://www.jeremyforlabour.com/vote by taking part as a supporter without being obligatory a member of the Labour Party.
Of the four labour leader candidates, including Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Jeremy Corbyn, Liz Kendall, Jeremy Corbyn is the one who could make a difference and the above website as well as numerous articles in the UK press describe why. Corbyn’s rise divided the Labour Party and many fear that phony supporters have joined as supporters from other parties just to vote against Corbyn, as the prospect of his appearance in the Parliament as the opposition leader in the autumn may change the dynamics and dimensions of contemporary British politics as we know it.
Ballot papers will be sent to voters, who register on the above site before the above deadline, while voting can take place by post or online. Voting papers must be returned by 10 September. The result will be announced on 12 September. Voters for a Labour leader do not need to be members of the Labour party, but supporters. Once registered as supporters, they pay GBP 3 for processing their vote and submit their details as a voter on the UK’s electoral registrar. For those who cannot register due to time constraints, watching this space will be worthwhile as new deadlines for this now controversial election may be announced, although Corbyn’s follow up especially by young people is a sure sign of the works of democracy.
At the general elections in May 2015 Labour won 65 pc of the votes in London making the UK’s biggest City stand out politically from the rest of the UK. Mr. Corbyn’s representation of North Islington may have well contributed to this.
At the Labour leadership elections, the Alternative Vote system is being used so voters are asked to rank candidates in order of preference
If no candidate gets 50% of all votes cast, the candidate in fourth place is eliminated. Their second preference votes are then redistributed among the remaining three. If there is still no winner, the third place candidate is eliminated with their second preferences (or third in the case of votes transferred from the fourth place candidates) redistributed. It is then a head-to-head between the last two candidates. Five candidates have applied for Labour’s deputy leader vacancy.
David Cameron’s move to increase in the peak of the summer the number of Lords is his realisation that despite leading the Party which formed alone a government, he needs to get as much support where he could get. The new appointments will also memorably heal wounds among old and new allies where former MPs lost their jobs at the last general elections in May 2015.
Mr Cameron made also a number of high profile public servants’ appointments where he could before the outcome of the general elections came out, thus defeating most election result polls, which did not envisage the come back of the Conservative Party as a single ruling party. The move to bring a number of new Lords costing the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds an year while the same government is introducing severe cuts in public services and potentially child benefit cuts to EU citizens living in the UK, will only lead to a stronger opposition to this policies. How and if Corbyn will work with the SNP (currently representing the only serious opposition in the UK Parliament) is a matter for the future. But a stronger opposition in the Parliament ahead of the UK’s referendum on EU membership next year and amidst the implementation of austerity measures over the next three years, could be only a good thing for the society at large and the EU’s citizens in the UK.
The author is not a member of any political party.
