Green Party supports Vote For A Change rally on Thursday

Peter Tatchell, the Green Party's parliamentary candidate for Oxford East, said: "I am supporting a national referendum on fair votes and electoral reform, to be held on the same day as the next general election."

Tatchell will be one of the speakers at the 9 July Vote For A Change Rally in London, along with Billy Bragg, Dave Rowntree (from Blur), Oona King, Peter Tatchell, Jo Swinson MP, and Gerard Batten MEP.

The Greens believe a proportional voting system will re-focus politics on what the voters want.

Greens favour the additional member system (AMS) specifically because it tends to give greater proportionality.

Under AMS, if 30% of the voters want Labour to represent them, then around 30% of the representation will be Labour; if 15% want Green MPs, then 15% of the parliamentary seats will be held by Greens. This, says the Green Party, would far better reflect the balance and diversity of opinion among the electorate.

Tatchell continued: "The lack of a fair voting system is a subversion of democracy. The Chartists and the Suffragettes fought for a representative parliament. Their battle is still unwon. Since the Second World War, no government has commanded the support of the majority of the British people. If we had fair votes, we may not have had the Thatcher and Blair governments, and we would probably never gone to war in Iraq. That's why electoral reform is so important. It is vital for democracy and better governance."

"Proportional representation is an issue of democracy and justice. It will ensure that every vote counts and it will end MPs and governments
elected with only minority support," said Mr Tatchell.

Vote for a Change rally will be meeting the 9 July at 6:30 pm in Methodist Central Hall.

For further information go to Vote for a Change website.

Alan Johnson has called today for a referendum to be held in conjunction with the next General Election.

The referendum would be one whether the UK should adopt some form of proportional representation for election to the Westminster Parliament.

"Alan Johnson seems to be the only Labopur politician who has got this right" said Nigel Farage, UKIP leader. "No, not about whether we should have PR, rather, that the people should be asked directly upon such questions.

"What the laws are, that's properly the province of Parliament, however elected. But how the laws are made is something that must be put to a referendum. Johnson gets this about elections to Westminster. It's just a pity that no one in his party understands that this applies to the Lisbon Treaty as well.

"Lisbon changes the way that the laws are made not just which laws are made. Thus we must have a referendum, the people must be asked directly. In the absence of such a referendum being offered there's only one choice, to vote for UKIP on June 4th to show that you demand your right to decide how the laws are going to be made in the future."