David Rendel and I spoke in a debate on the Liberal Democrat election manifesto at the March 2015 party conference. He talked passionately about electoral reform and achieving substantial changes in what some hoped would be another hung parliament: “The single most important change which the Liberal Democrats could make in the next parliament will be to turn our country into a democracy. Never in my lifetime, at least until the coalition was formed, has this country had a government supported by a majority of the people. Now I know that proportional representation is not necessarily sexy, and I know that it doesn’t inspire people on the doorstep but I am delighted that this motion does at least commit us to electoral reform, and I do urge our negotiators, if we are lucky enough again to be in a position to negotiate a coalition, to make PR the top priority.”
He went on: “It will change the way we are governed for ever, and for the better, and in a way that no other change can. Moreover, help may be on the way. For the first time ever, it seems, there may well be a large proportion of the electorate, and not just our supporters, who feel cheated by the election result. Proportional representation is an idea whose time has come.”
I know that colleagues at all levels of the party will miss David Rendel’s wisdom, enthusiasm and gritty campaigning spirit.
