The SSP's success has reinforced the opposition to PR amongst politicians, particularly New Labour and Tory ones, that PR should not be adopted for general elections or for council elections, to try to prevent socialists from getting a foothold. Although the Liberal Democrats say they are in favour of PR, they do not campaign around the issue.

The form of PR that has been adopted in Britain (for European, Scottish, Welsh and London elections) has been fixed by the big parties to make it difficult for small parties to get elected.

In the European elections, I had 11 parties and 1 independent to choose from, but I was only allowed to select a single candidate without specifying further preferences who my vote could be transferred to.

A related issue is that there is no method to remove very unpopular governments from power, except by a mass movement from below. There should be a way to cause another election (e.g. general or Scottish parliamentary) if a mass movement can prove that there is a big case for one – e.g. via demonstrations, opinion polls or petitions. Individual politicians who have betrayed their voters should also be able to be held to account in a similar way. There are countries in the world today where there are such systems (e.g. Venezuela) but my proposal here is mainly an argument about how a genuine democracy (which in my view must be a socialist one) should operate.

This forum is obviously for action, not just discussion – we need a mass worldwide movement to change the world...

A fair form of PR is the first and most important demand of the Campaign for Democracy in the UK, which has a website and a group.