New Ireland Group

So why not use consensus voting?  If, as he proposes, decisions should “only be taken by consensus” then, on those occasions when a verbal consenus proves to be elusive, why not use a consensus vote?  Allow (a short list of) all options to be ‘on the table’, and then ask the mlas to vote, in order of preference, on these options.  The outcome will be that option which gets the highest average preference, i.e., the option which is most acceptable to all.  (The actual methodology is called the Modified Borda Count, mbc.)

Part of the problem, in politics, is that many practitioners believe in confrontation.  Other groups of people – company boards, trades union executives, school management committees and so – consist of individuals of various talents, working together for a common goal.  They do not split into factions of ‘government versus opposition’ or whatever but, in most circumstances, retain a cohesive sense of purpose and common goal.  This is not the case in politics of the “old dogmas”.  How sad it is, therefore, that Mr. Robinson cannot embrace (electronic) preference voting, i.e., computerised multi-optional voting, which the New Ireland Group first demonstrated in 1991. 

Interestingly enough, others elsewhere have also sought to reform decision-making in politics.  Indeed, the late Robin Cook mp tried in the House of Commons, alas in vain, for “that would have involved,” he later bemoaned, “the technological development of a pencil and a piece of paper, which was far too big a step for our parliament and its medieval procedures.”  Let alone a computer! 

Wes Holmes, Hon Sec, New Ireland Group