@barks

Yes, I agree & spent a couple of years in the early 1990s working to these ends with #Charter88... whose agenda for reform remains as timely now as it was thirty years ago

@Peternimmo @nickbwalking

Yup, agree with all that.... the polite (middle-class?) remonstrations of #Charter88 (for whom I worked foe a while) equally went nowhere, even if they were relatively well received by the political class at the time

@ScotHomestead

Yes I just saw that - there will be a lot of ex-#Charter88 supporters cheering from the sidelines!

@philheppenstall @Dasy2k1 @gdunn39 @kennethb @epistatacadam

yes this was quite a popular position among #Charter88 staff & supporters as a sort of achievable end, and makes good sense

@Dasy2k1 @gdunn39 @philheppenstall @kennethb @epistatacadam

I agree (although maybe not about the actual PR system), which is why I spent the best part of two years working for #Charter88 in the early 1990s towards that end... we failed;

more recent chances at change (most recently the LibDem-led referendum) also have not managed to produce a majority behind the transition....

so we are where we are & we very much need to #gettheToriesout! #GTTO

@hollybrigstocke

Of course, this is exactly what #Charter88 was campaigning fr at the start of the 1990s.... I know, I worked for them; we had some buy in from across the political spectrum but enough to really make it happen - might be worth reviewing the C88 campaign for some things to do again & others which might need a different approach?

@kennykravitz @TCatInReality

yes, as I've noted before, when i was working for constitutional reform with #Charter88 in the early 1990s, support for PR ebbed away as the poll ratings got better... I think you summary at the ned of the post is sad, but true

@fencoul @RichardJMurphy

Interestingly, back in my old #Charter88 days, this was a strategy that some activists favoured - especially the two-step approach - end FPTP & immediately call another PR election... are you getting good feedback, as back in the 1990s it was very much a minority position, subject to the usual caveat of trust that the second step would follow the first one!

Having mentioned #Charter88 quiet a few times in the last few days... how about this for a bit of nostalgia?

Still a message with resonance!

@essjaykeys @hollybrigstocke Well of course I agree; you may have picked up from my previous posts that I worked for #Charter88 in the early 199os, campaigning for PR & other constitutional changes... sadly the idiotic LibDems threw away a relatively good chance of achieving by a badly managed referendum (yet one more thing to blame Nick Clegg for in my view)

@hollybrigstocke Well when I worked for #Charter88 in the early 1990s that was what we thought.... but rather inconveniently a common tactic among those who disagreed was to stand up in meetings & read what sounded like a highly reasonable section from a constitution to cheers & claps, only to then reveal it was from the constitution of the USSR & had done little to protect anyone....

@hollybrigstocke I spent the early 1990s working for #Charter88 whose programme included #voting reform, a formalised written #constitution & a range of other associated policies of radical change.... the #LibDems blew their chance for shifting us to #proportionalrepresentation and the rest of Charer88's agenda hit a range of resistances that (sadly) very much remain in place... as @sjwrenlewis focusses on: first #reformtrhemedia!

@KimSJ @edaross Back in my days working for #Charter88 one of the things some members wanted us to attempt was to make manifesto commitments legally enforceable... but of course all that would mean would be more weasily words & vagueness... thus. I like your approach better, although I also think it would lead to an awful lot of vexatious litigation (and lawfare by the rich - see how the libel laws are currently used). But good thought experiment if nothing else on a cold morning!

@PamCrossland @TheGuardian Completely agree; in a former life I worked for #Charter88 in the early 1990s when it was campaigning for PR (among other constitutional reforms) & I was livid that the #LibDems blew their chance on voting reform in the 2010s... some form of single transferrable vote would be a good move!

The kite flown by #KeirStarmer's team in The Observer this morning envisages a second (elected) chamber to replace the #HouseOfLords;
This looks a lot like #Charter88's agenda from the 1990s, especially if to balance a #HouseofCommons elected by first past the post, the new chamber was elected via #proportionalrepresentation
[full disclosure: I worked for Charter 88 in the early 1990s]