Tory defection and why we should care

Roger Helmer's defection to UKIP over the weekend really got under my skin to a surprising degree.  It's not that a disaffected Tory has defected to the disaffected Tory party - for those who can stomach it, Mr Helmer's somewhat garbled explanation can be found here, on the Conservative Home blog - it's the democracy issue.

When a local councillor or a Westminster MP crosses the floor, he or she can claim to have been given a personal mandate by the electorate, who were told what s/he stood for in election material.  But Jack Straw's hideous List System for the Euros means we can only vote for the party.  Nobody voted for Roger Helmer personally in 2009, just as nobody voted for our own Glenis Wilmott.  The electorate voted Labour, Tory or Nutter.  The total L, T and N votes were then ascribed proportionally to the parties, tweaked up and down according to rules that were both unfathomable and inevitably unfair, and the highest names on the respective lists were handed their tickets to Brussels.  Ranking on the list was done not by activists in the East Mids but by apparatchiks in London.

As a result of this defection UKIP who came third in 2009 despite losing 10% of their vote, have 2 MEPs until 2014 (hands up who knew there was another one), Labour who came second have only one and the Tories who obviously won with a significant increase in their vote also only have one.  Even if you have the slightest hankering for proportional representation (which I notoriously don't) how is this fair, proportional or democratic?

My view has always been that the List System was another manifestation of the progressive erosion of democratic accountability by careerist politicians.  If the voting public aren't enthused by Euro elections, taking away direct representation was never going to increase the turnout.  The truth is, Roger Helmer's defection doesn't matter two hoots - but it ought to.  And Labour, as the only party of opposition, ought to be developing policies to fix the problem.

In the meantime, I can't help empathising with our soon-to-be MP Chris Heaton-Harris who Tweeted (@chhcalling): "I honestly thought he [Helmer] was an honourable man; alas I was mistaken."