Speaker's Conference (on Parliamentary Representation) Contents


Submission from Unlock Democracy (SC-54)

ABOUT US

  Unlock Democracy (incorporating Charter 88) is the UK's leading campaign for democracy, rights and freedoms. A grassroots movement, we are owned and run by our members. In particular, we campaign for fair, open and honest elections, stronger parliament and accountable government, and a written constitution. We want to bring power closer to the people and create a culture of informed political interest and responsibility.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

    — Unlock Democracy supports a demographically representative Parliament that will not alienate people from politics.

    — This submission focuses on the under-representation of women in politics, especially local government, but has wider implications.

    — Although systemic action can be very effective in promoting a more representative Parliament—as Labour's All-Women Shortlists evinced in 1997—Unlock Democracy would not wish to force parties to adopt such measures and believed the cultures of the different parties should be respected.

    — Electoral reform, namely moving to a multi-member constituency system, is the most important systemic change to make, which has proved successful internationally. This could be combined with exclusive shortlists, zipping, or quotas, if parties so desired.

    — The New Politics Network (now amalgamated into Unlock Democracy) interviewed 17 female councillors about barriers women face at the local level in 2006. The study identified the need for there to be visible female role models in politics, and better support for female candidates. It found that women faced outdated attitudes, and difficulties balancing work and home commitments. The unpaid nature of local government work, was also found to be more of a barrier to women in light of the gender pay-gap. Some of the women interviewed noted that parties' selection process was open to discrimination because too informal.

    — Unlock Democracy is concerned that All BME Shortlists could lead to an "ethnic faces for ethnic voters" policy, and warns that discriminating on the basis of ethnicity is a dangerous path to go down.

    — Local parties need more members to choose more diverse candidates. Unlock Democracy believes party funding should be used to incentivise local political activity.

    — Political activity should be promoted as a public service and included within Government sponsored volunteering schemes.

    — Parties should provide financial support for childcare to women candidates standing at election.

    — Parties should be proactive in identifying and recruiting women as members and candidates at the local level.

    — At the national level, state grants could be provided for outreach and training programmes for women, and

    — There could be a move away from yah-boo adversarial politics in favour of parliamentary committee work and case work.

    — Unlock Democracy notes that the issue of social/economic barrier to entering Parliament is crucial and perhaps being currently overlooked.

INTRODUCTION

  1.  Unlock Democracy very much welcomes the launch of the Speaker's Conference to: "consider and make recommendations for rectifying the disparity between the representation of women ethnic minorities and disabled people in the House of Commons". We believe that Parliament being unrepresentative of the country it serves fuels the alienation that many people in Britain feel from politics. It fuels the perception that politics is not something that ordinary people engage in. Our submission focuses primarily on how to increase the number of women in Parliament as this is the area where we have conducted original research. However the systematic changes we suggest would benefit all under-represented groups.

  2.  The stark fact that fewer than 20% of MPs are women is a testament to the barriers which women still face in entering national politics. Even if all the major parties nominated women in 50% of their vacant and winnable seats until parity was reached, the rate of change would be slow. The year would be 2037 before equality of men and women was reached in the Parliamentary Labour Party; 2046 in the Liberal Democrats and 2278 in the Conservative Party.[126]

  3.  This is not to deny the progress of recent years. In 1945, there were just 24 female MPs; we now have a total of 126 out of 646. The major leap in this period took place in 1997, when Labour instituted its radical affirmative action initiative. The doubling in the number of female MPs from 60 in 1992 to 120 in 1997 was almost entirely due to the increase in female MPs in the Labour Party. Ninety-seven of the Labour Party's 355 MPs are women. In the Liberal Democrat Party this figure is ten out of sixty-three, and in the Conservative Party it is seventeen out of 196.

  4.  While there are systemic changes that we would recommend to increase the diversity of Parliament, we believe it is essential to respect the different cultures of political parties. While All-Women Shortlists have undoubtedly been an important tool in increasing the number of Labour women MPs we do not think that this, or indeed any individual mechanism, should be imposed on a political party. There is no magic bullet for increasing the diversity of Parliament, it will require both systemic and cultural changes.

PARTY MEMBERSHIP

  5.  There is a danger when examining issues such as these of focussing exclusively on getting under-represented groups into Parliament, without recognising that they are under-represented in politics more generally. Affirmative action can be used to get those who are already politically active into Parliament but there is a risk that these mechanisms become a fast track for professionals who would have got there anyway rather than bringing new people into politics and Parliament.

  6.  Political parties choose candidates from among their party members. This pool of activists and potential candidate has diminished drastically in the last half century. There are now around two members of the RSPB for every member of a political party in the UK. Unfashionable though it may be to say so in the present climate, political parties perform important roles without which representative democracy could not exist. The lion's share of this activity continues to take place at the local or constituency level of party activity. There is presently no better alternative model for organising democracy. Members of the RSPB do good work but without active members of political parties, who are willing to deliver leaflets, canvass and stand as candidates then our democracy is in crisis.

  7.  One of our predecessor organisations, the New Politics Network, published a study of the health of local parties in 2004, exploring what campaigning activities the local parties were able to carry out and how many activists they could rely on. When it came to candidate selection many of the local parties in their study were unable to field candidates in all wards in local government elections because they could not find suitable candidates willing to stand. This problem was most acute in safe seats held by another party where, in one instance a local party was only able to field candidates in 14% of wards. However even in some marginal seats, which are the focus of a greater degree of party activity and campaigning, some parties are unable to field candidates in all the available seats. Of the 10 local parties that were able to fulfil this basic criteria, only four were also able to hold a contested selection process. Where there is no or little choice of candidate, there is nothing anyone can do to encourage under-represented groups to take up politics. If we want there to be more women, ethnic minority and disabled MPs and candidates then we need to ensure they participating in politics at all levels.

  8.  Unlock Democracy believes that party funding should be used to incentivise political activity at a local level. We believe it is essential that urgent action is taken to revive grassroots politics and that increasing participation more generally will help to create a wider pool of candidates for political office at all levels. For more information on this please see Life Support for Political Parties by Alexandra Runswick which can be downloaded from our website here http://www.unlockdemocracy.org.uk/wp-content/Life%20Support.pdf

WOMEN IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

  9.  Any attempt to increase the representation of women in Parliament is laudable. However, national equality measures and targets do not always recognise the interrelation between the different tiers of government. In 2006, the New Politics Network conducted interviews with seventeen female councillors in order to discover the specific barriers that women face at local council level. In addition to these seventeen councillors, we also spoke to two Members of Parliament and four members of devolved chambers.[127]

  10.  Local politics is an important pathway to involvement in national and devolved government, and this is particularly true for women. It is therefore crucial that any steps to improve the representation of women in politics do not ignore the local level. According to research from the Equal Opportunities Commission, 68% of both male and female parliamentary candidates said that previous experience in local politics was important in encouraging them to stand. Of all elected MPs in 2001, 55.7% had local government experience.

  11.  The lack of women already in politics is often the first barrier that women face as it discourages them from seeing themselves as potential politicians. Training was also conspicuously absent as a means to recruit women and to encourage them to enter politics. Most of the women thought that support from their respective parties could be improved. It is worth noting that all of the women we interviewed thought that the experience of local politics was a good "apprenticeship" or "training ground" for national politics.

  12.  Party procedures governing initial selection were often seen by the women to be lacking formality and therefore open to discrimination. What is more, most of the women thought that there was not enough political will from their parties to address these issues and to turn promises of more female candidates into policy commitments aimed at increasing women's participation in government. On this issue we found a division along party lines. In general, the Labour interviewees were in favour of using equality guarantees; the Liberal Democrats preferred training and support; and the Conservatives opted to let things improve over time with the help of better education to increase general interest in politics.

  13.  Typically, the women's experience in office was characterised by a culture of direct and indirect discrimination. In particular, outdated attitudes about the role of women meant that some felt that their expertise had been overlooked when they were assigned roles within the council.

  14.  Despite women statistically being less likely than men to achieve the very top positions in local councils, in general the women we spoke to were satisfied with the encouragement they received from their parties when considering running for positions of authority or leadership. However, some interviewees did identify room for improvement when it came to formalising support networks and finding endorsement for such systems within their local parties.

  15.  Probably the most significant barrier the women faced was the difficulty of balancing council duties with home life and a career. The timings and locations of meetings were brought up by some women as a problem, but the financial strain of taking on a role in local government and possibly missing out on other paid employment was the greatest barrier of all. Some of the women also suggested that the loss of earnings involved in choosing a career in local government was the biggest disincentive to women considering becoming a councillor. The pay-gap between men and women in the workplace means that this is more of a problem for women than it is for men.

  16.  By looking at the interviewees' responses as a whole, it is evident that there are a number of ways in which women are prevented from participating equally in local government. Some of the women reported intentional discrimination, sexual harassment or taunting. These are attitudes and behaviours which are perpetuated by party structures and councils' institutional frameworks and working practices. The women also cited problems such as council decisions being taken "at the pub" and the times of council or party meetings not taking account of family commitments. This may not be through any particular malice or intention to marginalise women, but it is something to which local authorities and political parties need to be sensitive.

  17.  This research focused on the experiences of women in local government but the barriers that they face are the same as for women trying to enter national politics, the only difference perhaps is that as there are fewer seats the barriers to entering Parliament are even higher.

ELECTORAL SYSTEM

  18.  There is no single change that would on its own increase the numbers of women, ethnic minority and disabled MPs but the change that would make by far the most difference is reforming the electoral system. They may use different electoral systems but internationally, the countries that have more representative politics also have multi-member constituencies. This is the case even where there are no quotas in operation. Where parties have the opportunity to nominate more than one candidate they are more likely to nominate a balanced slate than if they can only nominate one candidate. If only one candidate can be nominated, parties will often choose the white, male candidate as he is seen as the more broadly acceptable candidate. There is a myth that women candidates lose votes has wide currency in constituency parties. Often discrimination was justified by blaming the voters, arguing (incorrectly) that the voters would not vote for a woman and the relevant Party could not risk losing the seat. However the Fawcett Society has shown that Voters do not penalise women candidates. The problem is that political parties do not select women in sufficient numbers in safe or winnable parliamentary seats.[128]

  19.  Multi-member seats also offer parties the choice of a number of different pro-active measures for selecting candidates from under-represented groups. In the UK All-Women Shortlists are the most well known and controversial form of positive discrimination but there are mechanisms for encouraging selection of women candidates. For example in list electoral systems some parties "zip" the party list so that every other candidate is female. Other parties use quotas, often thirds, for candidate selection so that at least a third of the list must be male and a third must be female. Of course it is not just getting on the list that is important but the position on the list which is why this technique is often combined with a quota for the top of the list so that at least one of the top three candidates also has to be female.

  20.  Electoral reform is not a panacea; without accompanying changes in the political culture reform will still be slow. While electoral systems enable the selection of a wider variety of candidates but on its own the electoral system cannot change the political culture. The experience of introducing the single transferable vote in Northern Ireland has demonstrated this. However it remains the one systemic change that would make the most difference to the selection of a more diverse range of candidates.

ALL BME SHORTLISTS

  21.  Unlock Democracy share the concerns of commentators[129] that all BME shortlists would be a detrimental step for British politics. Our main concern is that all minority shortlists would be placed in the seats with most black and Asian voters, and retreat to an "ethnic faces for ethnic voters" argument. Parmjit Dhanda was elected to the predominantly white constituency of Gloucester in 2001, if all BME shortlists had been in place would he have been advised to go to Leicester or Ealing and told to wait for one of "their seats" to come up? There is also a danger that minority-only contests would focus more on ethnicity—and which community's "turn" it is to win a seat—than the candidate's qualities.

  22.  Legalising the exclusion of certain ethnic groups from selection processes, albeit with the worthwhile intention of increasing the representation of groups within Parliament, could have very dangerous consequences. The British National Party already selects its party members of the basis of ethnicity we do not want to encourage this kind of candidate selection. While All-Women Shortlists have cause some divisions within the Labour Party, most notably in Blaneau Gwent, we believe this is nothing compared to the balkanising effect that all BME shortlists would have on British politics.

OTHER ISSUES

  23.  One of the significant barriers to becoming an MP not explored in this Conference is money. For most people the experience of being a candidate involves moving around the country spending time, often many years developing a seat. MPs are lucky enough to already live and work in a constituency that is a safe seat for their party and even if they did they would usually be expected to stand somewhere else first to gain experience. This is only possible if the type of work you do enables you to move to different areas and if you have the resources to do so. Even if this is financially possible it is of course a significant proposition for those with families, particularly children. At a New Politics Network fringe event about the health of local political parties on recently elected MP spoke of having given up his £70,000 a year job and moving into the constituency to be a full time candidate for two years prior to the election. He was very lucky that he was able to do that and that his wife earned enough to support them while he did but that simply wouldn't be possible for many people. There is a real danger that even as Parliament becomes more representative in terms of gender, ethnicity and disability that it becomes less representative in terms of background. It is difficult to see how someone like John Prescott would become an MP today not because the public would not vote for them but because they would not be able to afford the experience of being a candidate.

REFORM OF NON-PARTY INSTITUTIONS

A more modern debating chamber

  24.  Aggressive "yah-boo" politics not only dissuades many women from putting themselves forward for office, it also perpetuates the perception that politicians are ego-driven and disconnected with the realities of their constituents' lives. Parliament is about far more than Prime Ministers Questions and we believe that there should be more emphasis on the work of select committees and the case work that MPs do.

Political participation as a voluntary activity

  25.  This Government has rightly done much to promote the importance of volunteering within society. However politics is very rarely included in any of the schemes encouraging people to volunteer in their communities. We need to reintegrate the concepts of political participation and public service and recognise that people who join political parties and deliver leaflets, organise stalls in high streets and canvass are the bedrock of our democracy rather than being somehow suspect.

Financial help towards childcare whilst standing as a candidate

  26.  We recognise that political parties have limited resources and that their priority, rightly is to spend money on campaigning. However we believe if more women are to be encouraged to become candidates there needs to be financial support available for childcare while they are standing for election.

REFORM IN THE PARTIES

Outreach work

  27.  Political parties need to be more proactive in identifying and recruiting female community activists to join their parties and to stand for local office. Networking between women's groups within the parties and from the local community would be a good first step.

Training for female candidates

  28.  Many of our interviewees, especially those from smaller parties, mentioned the lack of outreach work and training programmes. Given that the under-representation of women in local politics is also a problem for the wider democratic process, there may be a case for state grants to be available for recruitment and training programmes.

Training for selection committees

  29.  The importance of training selection committees to make sure that they are recruiting a representative set of candidates was highlighted by several of the councillors. The major parties all claim that they already have training programmes for selection committees in place. Parties would be well-advised to ensure that these are genuinely effective measures, and not just token gestures.







126   J. Lovenduski, and L. Shepherd Robinson, Women and Candidate Selection in British Political Parties, (London: 2002). Back

127   This research was published as Linsley, B Marie,A Martin R Stacey L Women in the Chamber barriers to representation in local politics New Politics network 2006 and is available for download here http://www.unlockdemocracy.org.uk/?p=418 Back

128   J. Lovenduski, and L. Shepherd Robinson, Women and Candidate Selection in British Political Parties, (London: 2002). Back

129   http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2008/03/minority-shortlists-british Back


 
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