TO STAMP OUT TRUTH DECAY WE MUST KEEP ON STAMPING.

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH FLUORIDE CAMPAIGN -- ELECTORAL REFORM

The first of many announcements of cuts in Government spending start today. Amongst this first package will be the ending of a variety of Quangos. Lets hope therefore, that the Government quickly deal with the PCTs and SHAs ..... ASAP. These unelected and autocratic bodies replaced the locally appointed health committees and rapidly became a mechanism for virtually automating the process of imposing water fluoridation and other unwelcome changes in the NHS and in the process, spent millions on promotion of fluoridation and threaten to spend hundreds of millions more on implementation.

This dangerous, unscientific, undemocratic and ineffective process, and the cynical " consultation " process and Water Act 2003 which enabled it, embody some of the worst excesses of the Nanny State. It soils New Labours reputation as a democratic party and the UK as a whole as a democratic system. It has damaged its reputation for sound parliamentary management of the UKs finances and perhaps most sadly of all, New Labour has damaged its own baby, the NHS. The 2003 Act, enshrined in Law the SHAs power to both call for and to ignore the results of all public consultation creating a very dangerous precedent for legalising the dismissal of future consultations whether these be over NHS changes and closures but also closures of Post Offices and a wide variety of planning decisions. Consultation no longer means consultation in the minds of many people but rather an indication that the outcome of future public consultations and subsequent decisions are now foregone conclusion beyond the reach of the electorate.

Andy Burnham who helped push fluoridation through parliament and also the man who introduced such undemocratic and expensive items as the ID Cards and assorted Databases has now joined the race for the leadership of the Labour Party. Not only does he have a penchant for foisting upon us unwelcome control freakery but he cheerfully accepted a position as Health Minister in the Labour Government without bothering to resign from his BFS position. He only accepted the charges of conflict of interest when his activities were made public by campaigners and the media.

This is not the kind of behaviour one would expect from a Government Minister and certainly not, heaven forbid, a future Prime Minister although for Mr Burnham, its perfectly in character. It actually gets even worse, Burnham said only this week that it was important the Labour Party listened to the electorate. Burnham appears to suffer from severe attention deficit disorder and should immediately himself lobby to rectify the contradictions in the Water Act 2003. Even if he did, its unlikely that anyone would ever believe or trust him again.

The last couple of years has demonstrated the desperate need for electoral reform which Friends of the Earth across the UK, fully endorses. As FoEs Director Andy Atkins said recently... " Friends of the Earth is backing the Take Back Parliament campaign for electoral reform, as part of a coalition which believes that our 'winner takes all' first-past-the-post voting system is bust beyond repair, and is calling for a fairer system of representation where seats in Parliament are allocated according to the number of votes parties receive.

Andy Atkins has said: "The current electoral system means parties focus on winning over small numbers of voters rather than grasping the long-term challenges and opportunities our country faces – such as climate change and green jobs.

"First-past-the-post is biased towards the two big parties and doesn’t represent the real views of UK voters.

"We need a fairer way of voting to restore public confidence and ensure peoples’ concerns are properly represented by the politicians that win seats."

Friends of the Earth does not support any particular voting system, but believes the electoral system our country chooses should be decided by the public. Citizens should be involved in determining the options, with the final choice made in a referendum. Our voting system has to have public backing. There are important principles – MPs should be voted for individually so they can be held to account, for example – but this can be delivered by a number of electoral systems.