Elective dictatorship revisited

The conservatives rightly claim a great victory in the election. They are, after all, back in government on their own. But did they really win? After all they only put on 0.8% from their proportion of the vote in 2010. They also benefited, it can be argued, not from Labour’s discomfort, but from the collapse of Liberal Democrat voting. It is true that they had to mount two might hurdles. One was the rise of Ukip and the other was the low expectations of their performance suggested by opinion polls. But they have been elected on only 36% of the vote. No one else has a right to govern, of course, so the rules of this game are being played out as normal. The Conservatives are the legitimate government for sure. But now let us consider the context of Lord Hailsham’s accusation that British government is an elective dictatorship. He made the remark in his Dimbleby lecture in 1976. At the time there was a Labour government with a wafer thin majority (Hailsham was a leading Conservative). He was bemoaning the fact that, as long as the government has a Commons majority, any majority, it can pass any legislation it wishes as long as the party whips do their work efficiently. His comments would therefore apply equally well to 2015. A Majority of 12 and yet the Conservative government is claiming the authority to carry out some pretty radical reforms, notably the abolition of the Human Rights Act and a law against organisations which threaten British values in someone’s judgment, greater devolution to Scotland and to English cities and deep cuts in some benefits. All this on 36% approval of the British electorate on a two thirds turnout. Do the Maths and we discover that only 24% of the adult population voted Conservative. Put another way, 76% did not vote Conservative. Then we can add the situation in Scotland where even David Cameron had accepted that his legitimacy is blown. Yet they legally claim a mandate to do virtually anything. This is not a partisan point. The same would apply to any other party, and even more so a minority government. Now on the EU there is to be a referendum – probably. Here legitimacy of the decision will be certain, a long as there is a decent turnout, that is. But in the current situation we really must ask ourselves whether there is a legitimate majority supporting the government’s programme. In particular should there be a referendum on the repeal of the HRA? True its introduction was never entrenched by a referendum (looking back, perhaps it ought to have been), but can a government, an elective dictatorship if you like, legitimately make such a constitutional change on the basis of a 12 seat majority and 36% of the popular vote.