Politics
This morning showed me the clearest indication I've yet seen that there's something wrong with the electoral system in the UK. On the morning that the Conservatives regained power after thirteen years, and after what the media seemed to think was a very strong Liberal Democrat campaign, the numbers currently look as follows
( Read more... )
Comments 21
Reply
Firstly, 631,907 people want to give the BNP 14 seats. That's 1% of the population; about 2% of the electorate. I think there are two morally valid approaches one can take here:
1) Try to engage people and persuade them not to support the BNP.
2) Accept that there will always be some bastards, but a 1% of the electorate's not that big a deal and we can work around them.
Having a system that disenfranchises people whose views you don't agree with is not something I can get behind. Yes, democracy can put power into the hands of stupid ignorant people, but that's an inherent problem with letting the people choose their leader.
Reply
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Anyway, presumably the above does not take account of the fact that different areas have different amounts of apathy when it comes to voting. So, for example, a large amount of the conservative votes will (presumably) be from strong conservative areas, or areas with a particularly charismatic candidate who has managed to persuade more people to turn out. So should a large number of people voting for a certain candidate in one area overrule the people who have voted in other areas, just because they had a good candidate or a strong historical following?
Reply
I don't know. The local representation argument is the best one against full PR. I don't very much like the idea that to win, people have to be affiliated to a party.
STV might offer a halfway house - it was the system they used for student elections in Durham, if you remember. It's not quite the same as PR, but it may achieve some of the same effects.
Honestly, I'm a bit ignorant of the electoral system - but starting a debate and then listening to the more informed people talk is the only way I'm going to cure that.
Reply
As someone who elected to vote for the candidate rather than the party they were standing for, I agree.
However, the majority of voters don't seem to think that way. Maybe its the media but people kept talking about voting for Cameron, Brown or Clegg. The leadership debate didn't help. If people are thinking nationally, then the electoral system would do well to reflect that. We would still have Councillors to represent us locally.
In short, I think PR would deliver what the majority of voters seem to think they should be getting (esp. if some groups are getting over a 5th of the votes but less than a tenth of the representation). Saying that, I'm also fond of STV.
Reply
Badly explained by me, example in case it helps.
Out of 150 MPs there would be 100 that got their places based on first past the post in the election, then the total votes for the country would be used to assign 50 more MPs that didn't have constituencies.
Reply
Reply
The situation you talk about with local parties not being able to get elected wouldn't happen (I think) as they would likely win their local constituency vote, as they do now, but they wouldn't gain any/many seats in the second part of the process allotted on total vote share.
Will have a look at the link later when I have some time and see.
Reply
Reply
Person I definitely don't want/person I hate most.
Those votes should count against them.
Would help to ensure BNP don't get anything
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment