From the Rt Revd Dr Colin Buchanan
Sir, - Your report (News, 16
January) of Show Up, a movement to "encourage Christians to get
involved in politics", did not touch on a significant factor in
"disillusionment". The simple truth is that voting under our
present first-past-the-post electoral system is for large numbers a
fruitless exercise.
In the past, this has been most marked in the 200 or so safe
seats, where voting is cosmetic only; but in May this year we may
also see 200 or more seats where no fewer than five political
parties (six in Scotland) with nationwide credibility are in
contention with each other, and other minor parties are also
standing. The upshot could be large numbers of MPs (of almost any
persuasion) returned with a vote of between 20 per cent and 35 per
cent of those who voted, and returned not because they were most
wanted, but because the five-way split of votes made it wholly
random which of the candidates would be returned. The chances are
that the result not only would be random, but would, in a
proportion of seats, return the candidate least wanted by the 65-80
per cent of the electors who had voted for other parties.
The curious factor in this is that for nearly 100 years the
Church of England has used the wholly just system of the single
transferable vote (STV) in its own main elections, and thus holds
the high moral ground over against the injustices that we are
likely to see in the May election. In our General Synod, and its
committees, we can demonstrate that the people have elected the
people they wanted. The parliamentary system cannot do that
all.
This is a justice question. If we are to do what the report
advocates by "seeing politics as another mission field", then
please can all who are speaking for us, and all who have a chance
actually to engage, put the axe to the root of our unjust electoral
system? Exhorting people to vote within a laissez-faire
acceptance of the system is opting out of our mission
responsibility.
Colin Buchanan
21 The Drive, Leeds LS17 7QB
From the Rt Revd Michael Doe
Sir, - Your report "Contributors united on sandy foundations" (
News, 16 January) reinforces what the Ecumenical Council for
Corporate Responsibility said in our recent report on income
inequality, Using Ethical Investment to Close the Gap, a
radical call to action for the investor community to use their
ownership responsibilities to address ever increasing levels of
wealth inequality in the UK.
We need to address the issue of inequality from both directions.
For those at the bottom of society, many are in multiple and
insecure jobs, and one in five workers is still paid less than the
Living Wage. This is even before we address the question why
unemployed and disabled people are having their benefits cut.
At the other end, last year, the average CEO in a FTSE 100
company earned £4.7 million: 358 times the earnings of a full-time
worker on the national minimum wage. ECCR asks how this can be
ethical, and challenges companies to make public their pay
differentials and how they justify them.
For too long, investors have presided over a corporate system
that over-rewards the elite while leaving many employees at poverty
level. We want individual and institutional investors within our
churches to revisit their responsibilities, as the owners of these
businesses, to challenge companies to tackle low pay and insecure
work, and to justify salaries and bonuses at the top.
The current inequality is bad for the people involved, unhealthy
for society as a whole, and often not good for business itself. The
report is on our website: www.eccr.org.uk.
Michael Doe
ECCR, c/o Harling House
47-51 Great Suffolk Street
London SE1 0BS