I have read through the notes on the Public Affairs Web and the relevant chapters in Kingdom, and the one thing that really struck me was the issue of our electoral system and whether it is fair etc.
The electoral system that is used in the UK general election is known as first-past-the-post (FPTP). In short, citizens vote for a local MP to represent their constituency in Parliament. The party with the most seats in parliament forms government. This system, like everything in life has its pros and cons.
I'll keep it simple. In short, the pros are:
- It is simple and easy to understand for the mass plebs that form the British public.
- It develops a close link between MPs and their constituencies.
- It produces a strong, stable, single-party government. FPTP lends itself to enable one party to have a majority of seats and therefore able to govern to their own principles. Not having to compromise in a a weak coalition.
- It prevents dangerous extremist parties gaining power.
- Many votes are considered 'wasted'. In a single-member constituency only one set of opinions can be expressed.
- The issue of 'safe seats'. Many constituencies have had the same MP or political party in control for a number of years. For example, my constituency of Fareham has had the same useless MP ever since I have lived here. So a vote for Labour in this constituency is pretty much wasted.
- Voters have become more interested in the leaders of the political parties rather than their local MPs. The Prime Minister is becoming an ever more 'presidential' figurehead.
- Voter Apathy. Due to the reasons above, (and some I will explain below) many voters have become disenchanted with the electoral system. Too many votes simply don't count towards the final result.
Percentage of votes Seats
Lab.: 35.2% 354 MPs
Cons.: 32.3% 196 MPs
Lib Dem.: 22% 62 MPs
Others: 10.5% 34 MP
There are 646 seats in the House of Commons. So depsite getting 35.2% of the total votes cast in the election, Labour actually received 54.8% of seats. This is clearly disproportionate. In contrast, the Lib Dems got 22% of votes cast, but only 9.6% of seats. How can this be fair? It's not really is it.
Now for something completely different...John Cleese describing Proportional Representation.
Of course PR has its weaknesses. It was used during the 1920s in the Wiemar Republic (Germany) but that eventually led to Hitler so....
3 comments:
You can't blame the voting system in Germany for Hitler. That's like blaming guns for murder. Its false induction. The main reason Hitler got in to power was that lots of Germans were Nazis - more were Nazis at that time than anything else.
Thus the problem was Nazis. Not the electoral system. I like your blog you write with a certain detached, world weary style that's quite effective.
The fact they used PR in the Weimar Republic certainly enabled the Nazis, the communists, and other extremist parties to gain recognition in the house. They would have struggled at first with FPTP. Of course it didn't directly lead to Hitler, that comment was a tad tongue-in-cheek.
fair enough
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