Britain will be ungovernable until democratic consent is restored | Letter
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The current Labour government entered office with a landslide of seats built upon a mere 20% of the total eligible electorate, writes Dr Lalith Chandrakantha
Tom Clark’s analysis of our “ungovernable country” expertly diagnoses the symptoms of our political malaise but entirely bypasses the fundamental arithmetic of modern British democracy (The ungovernable country? Why Britain keeps losing prime ministers, 17 May).
Democracy is, by definition, government by the consent of the governed. Yet our electoral system routinely mistakes a gaming of the system for a genuine mandate. The current Labour government entered office with a landslide of seats built upon a mere 20% of the total eligible electorate. To mistake the silence of the 40% who chose not to vote for passive compliance is a fatal error. Previous governments and prime ministers were not very different.
المصدر: The Guardian — Commentisfree