Hugh Reilly: Cross purposes over how to cast a vote

Published on Sunday 1 May 2011 15:22

MOST historians agree that Athens was the cradle of democracy. In that ancient city state, citizens who were not slaves or female participated directly in the political process.

For example, in 490 BC, a simple show of hands granted permission to close off main thoroughfares to four-legged traffic in order to allow Phillipides to safely complete the city's inaugural marathon. Unfortunately, although he survived hitting "the wall" at Galatsi, he died of heatstroke just as he crossed the finishing line. But his name lives on as the first jogger to be posthumously awarded the "I Ran The Athens Marathon" T-shirt.

The principles of Greek democracy could not be stopped by emperors, kings or golf club secretaries. In a just a short few thousand years, men in Britain were granted the right to vote… if they owned enough property. Soon, there was some wild talk that women should be given the vote. Throughout this political upheaval, the ruling class remained remarkably impassive, no doubt aware that the first past the post (FPTP) voting system held more rigging than HMS Victory.

Educating youngsters in the finer points of political literacy is not for the faint-hearted. David Cameron claims FPTP is easy to understand; after all, the voter need only place a cross in a box. Some pupils, however, doggedly reserve the right to put a tick alongside their chosen candidate. They feel somewhat vindicated when I relate that, in a real election, making a tick does not spoil the vote. I discovered this when, as a council employee in 1974, I helped count the votes in the two general elections that year. As a vote teller, I also learned that idiots use a ballot paper to vent their anger at democracy. More than one ballot paper had a frenetically written political message that read, "F*** You!" Of course, I didn't take this kind of statement personally until it happened in a class election in my headmaster's handwriting.

Despite some brains being befuddled with FPTP, the teacher must endeavour to persevere. Starting a lesson on the intricacies of proportional representation, Sir experiences the kind of heavy heart that Tensing must have felt on being informed he'd be carrying hardback copies of the selected works of Charles Dickens up Everest for Hillary's tent-time reading. PR is any electoral system which leads to a close link between votes cast and seats won: the alternative vote, additional members system, single transferable vote come under the umbrella of PR. There are others but a broad consensus exists among political scientists that a system has yet to be devised that would make Iain Gray electable.

AMS is a hybrid of FPTP and PR but why use the term "hybrid" when one instinctively knows that using "bastard" will prick up the ears of the students? Now that you have the cherubs' attention, Sir adopts a grave tone to explain how AMS deftly maintains the vital link between an elected representative and the constituency he/she represents.The all-consuming importance of keeping this link is somewhat undermined by the failure of any kid to name their constituency MSP. "It's a wummin wae specs," is usually the closest a child comes to successfully identifying their political representative.

Having hurdled the constituency vote with as much grace as a one-legged amputee, Sir struggles to summon up the mental strength to begin describing how the list vote works. Eight regions, each with seven list MSPs, additional members awarded depending on the outcome of the constituency results, the names of parties and independents on the ballot paper. This is all too much for those teenage X-men who believed FPTP was a rather byzantine voting system. To be fair, it's too much for me. Teaching about list voting brings back memories I've tried to bury. In the 2003 election, I wanted to see Tommy Sheridan in the Scottish Parliament but I was acutely aware that, as she was second on the party list, my vote for the SSP could ultimately lead to Rosie Kane joining him. Thanks to counselling, I now accept that other Glaswegian, left-minded individuals must accept a share of the responsibility for her embarrassing cameo appearances in the chamber.

No wonder voting makes me cross.