DIYnot General Election Poll

[ntb]

But PR means a permanent coalition of nearly all parties, so no government can govern without asking permission from the other parties. Ergo, you cannot get your legislation through without a fight. It's a bit like a government governing with a permanent minority.

Not neccesarily a bad thing. The less governments do, the better life generally is.

Do we really need a government anyway? We have that establishment in Brussels to tell us what to do, don't we?

Unfortunately so. I'd prefer none of them and less of ours.

 

[JBR]

I've never liked FPTP , it has always seemed a poor reflection on the votes cast.

However, it's not just about sheer numbers of votes across the country when comparing it to PR.

It depends on the make up of constituencies , their internal electorate as well.

Which form of PR would be best?

I don't know what the various forms of PR are called but, simply put, I'd like to see all votes for each party throughout the country totalled and an appropriate number of MPs for each party assigned to parliament in proportion to the number of votes cast nationally.

The actual people selected to become MPs would be decided by each party leader in consultation with his/her executive body.

There would still be the same number of MPs as constituencies, and the government collectively would have to assign an MP of any party to represent each constituency and to whom voters could make their requests for support or suggestions. This shouldn't pose any problems: for example, I have always voted Conservative in the past yet my local MP was a Limp Dem (until he got kicked out!) and, in the past, I have asked him for help when needed. He didn't know who I voted for, of course!

Possibly, that is actually one established type of PR, I don't know. I'm sure someone will put me right!

 

[mark vincent]

Demark, Sweden, Germany, New Zealand, Australia to mention a few all have PR type electoral systems and they all seem to get along ok.

 

[Micilin]

JBR , would you lose the link between MP and constituencies, ie people would no longer vote for the best person in their constituency?

I think STV does this well but then you need more than one seat per constituency. Perhaps make the constituencies bigger but multi seat?

 

[Doug99]

Before the next election (2020) all constituency boundaries are going to be adjusted to ensure they all represent the same number of the electorate. Apparently this will benefit the Tories.

 

[JBR]

JBR , would you lose the link between MP and constituencies, ie people would no longer vote for the best person in their constituency?

I take your point but, going back to what I said (wrote) earlier, I voted Conservative regardless of who the standing MP (Limp Dem) was. I didn't even know anything about the Conservative candidate: the party's policies and past record was more important to me.

I think STV does this well but then you need more than one seat per constituency. Perhaps make the constituencies bigger but multi seat?

I think that could work, yes, but just so long as the total number of MPs didn't increase. I think we have more than we need already.

Another alternative could be to have PR elected MPs in one house and local representatives in the other. I don't agree with the Lords anyway: nobs who are there purely because of their birth and life peers who are there because they contributed large sums of money to their favourite party (Lord Sugar?).
Which house would be the proposers of legislation and which would be the one having the right of veto, I don't know.

 

[joe-90]

Sugar has just resigned from the Labour Party.

 

[Dextraneous]

Not sure why a bread head like him was ever in it

 

[JBR]

Sugar has just resigned from the Labour Party.

Yes, he waited until they'd lost the election. I bet he wouldn't have left if they'd won.

I now expect to see him join the Conservative party.

 

[ladylola]

UKIP gained nearly 4 million votes, which is encouraging and shows how much public support they have. Had we had PR, they would now have gained nearly 70 seats in parliament.

Needless to say, I don't foresee the two 'main parties' agreeing to any change to the system!

One calculation I have seen puts the figure are nearer 80 along with 24 Greens but there is the suggestion that these figures aren't the whole equation and as such may be a bit misleading. It has been said ( and I'd post a link if I can find it again) or estimated that it doesn't take into account those who wanted to protest vote but didn't or wouldn't waste their vote by casting it for a party unlikely to get anywhere . This could therefore actually increase the share for smaller parties under PR .