The preferred outcome for PR enthusiasts is a lack of a clear majority, leading to a new kind of positive politics - cooperation, not confrontation. The undemocratic instincts that inform these reforms are illustrated by the proposal for closed lists. In New Britain, in European elections at least, they will be a state-registered rubber stamp. The Neill Committee on party funding heard proposals from democratic reformers in Charter 88 that would turn hitherto independent political parties into virtual government departments. For today's politicians democracy is more about reaching a consensus - it is about what they do, not what we do.
Nobody talks about fighting for an authority derived from a majority of the people.
Democratic 'modernisers' have all kinds of schemes to make government fairer, more 'modern' and more 'effective'. But nobody seems to talk about a contest for popular support. In this context a second chamber, elected or unelected, will be part of the problem, not a solution. The new mystique of consensus politics and non-adversarial assemblies will prove to be at least as undemocratic as the mystique of tradition it aims to supplant.