Electoral Reform....think on

This election has been a real eye-opener for me. I had no idea quite how bad the American electoral system is. It’s grossly unfair and open to manipulation.

 

The American system seems to have the same overall problem as FPTP, in that not every vote is of equal importance.

 

There are many forms of PR. It’s j based on a hybrid of FPTP. We need to move away from FPTP it’s not fit for purpose that doesn’t mean we should move towards an electoral college model

 

Precisely, both systems are equally bad from that respect. The only saving grace for ours is that we don't vote for a party leader but for a local MP who is accountable to their constituents. I have no idea how the members of the electoral college are accountable because as far as I can see, their only job is to elect the President. The House of Representatives is closest to our House of Commons but with much less power. If you set out to create a completely incomprehensible system theirs is what you'd get.

 

Make Votes Matter.
Proportional representation.

 

PR, but with a minimum threshold of 5% so you don’t get the lunatic fringe holding the balance of power. The largest party get their votes instead, so you have at least one strong party.

 

It’s important to have a strong opposition especially when there’s a shower in power like we have

 

True, but I’m not sure that a rainbow coalition giving disproportionate power to fringe parties is a desirable outcome.

See the Ulster Unionists for details.

 

Having grown up with it, I couldn't agree more!

 

Agree with that but the Tory’s and some labour politicians vigorously campaigned against this in the 2011 referendum and the country rejected it .
It would almost end the two party franchise in this country .
With the Tory’s coming out on top over the years it’s they who lose the most and are staunchly against in effect voting against themselves .
Most working class and minority groups cling to the Labour Party for protection against a upper class leaning Tory Party .
If we had proportional representation imo we would have a fairer ruling government whereas their performance and voting actions would be under more scrutiny than it is with party protectionism’s .
I think we’d see a more diverse government than the ones we are used to with less partisan attitudes.
Not gonna happen though as the usual lies from both party’s as the last referendum exposed and the British people are normally gullible to one party or another have both party’s in each ear will vote it away again imo.

 

This is the sort of misguided stuff that is portrayed in our media. What you claim is the risk is not the risk - the Brexit party polled just 2% of the vote in 2019 add this to the Tories 43.6% only gets them to 45.6% still well short of a majority.

The risk is when in a hung parliament an increase of just 1.2% of the vote gets such a large majority. The Tories went from 42.4% of the vote in 2017 to 43.6% of the vote in 2019 In terms of the number of seats they went from 299 to 365 in other words an increase in the vote of 1.2% gets an increase in the number of seats of 22.1%

 

The UKIP party would yes, have won circa 82 seats

UKIP 12.6%
Tories 36.9% (They had a 12 seat majority)

These two parties together make 49.5% of the votes - so they still do not make a majority

Despite my disliking of Farage (and I'm being kind there) I do not see what the issue is.

Simply PR is a much more democratic and fairer system than we have at present

 

The 2011 vote wasnt for proportional representation was it? It was the alternate vote which wouldn't have made much difference.

 

It’s a kind of PR or that’s what the Lib Dem’s tried to sell it as at the time .
Don’t know about it not making much difference there was a vigorous campaign against and John Prescott called it an abomination and how much he wanted the status quo to get into the Tories in the House of Lords .
I’m a Labour Party member and would vote for PR tomorrow. .
Lots of people vote Labour as a protection against the Tories so it would be better if MPs were voted on their records rather than Party lines imo . Hopefully the Tory and Labour Party would be redundant if MPs had to represent their constituencies to be voted in rather than Party lines .

 

Wasn't really what the lib dems wanted it was as far as the tories would go when agreeing the coalition to allow them a referendum.