How come you got the opportunity to vote for PR in 2011 ? ...... I didn't !
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PR Voting
- Thread starter Publius Ovidius
- Start date
How come you got the opportunity to vote for PR in 2011 ? ...... I didn't !
So how does that end up being proportional... you could still get 10% of the vote nationally and not get a single MP.
beorhthelm
A. Virgo, Football Genius
- Jul 21, 2003
- 35,327
what clear is that if we want to change to a more PR oriented system, it requires a full root and branch overhaul. many of the "problems" come from the seat structure, then we compare national voting trends. do we want pure PR, or have an arbitary threshold a party must achive? do we keep 650 MPs, or reduce them? should we have a directly elected PM? it would need a campaign to educate the public, explain the deficencies, explain the alternatives, decide on some suitable, acceptable alternative and then go to a referendum. not ask the public if they want some fudge that is neither PR or "fair" without any explaination of whats supposed to be wrong, what the improvement is, where the AV campaign failed.
GT49er
Well-known member
Posts 3 and 4 were about STV rather than straightforward PR.
Hampster Gull
New member
- Dec 22, 2010
- 13,462
Yeap
Let me run one little thing by you - so if we went from first past the post and IS put up fundamentalist candidates and some right wing Christian group put up candidates and we had an alliance of other extreme loony parties (not the benign Monster Raving Loonies, although they would have MPs too)would it be a good thing? And if the less mainstream vote (extreme Islamic or extreme anything else) held the balance of power , would that be good? Be careful what you wish for.
Juvenile nonsense. The whole of Europe has PR in one form or another. Remind me when, in the past 70 years has an extremist party swept to power in Germany. Or Switzerland. or Denmark. Or Sweden. Or Norway. Or the Netherlands.
Get a better argument.
Get a better argument.
Fleet didn't say they'd "sweep to power" what he/she said was that an extremist party could hold the balance of power. And that has happened: it's happened in Israel where some extreme right religious parties have held the balance of power, it's happened in Austria when Jörg Haider's far-right Freedom Party was in a coalition government,and, while it has happened in Hungary yet, the extremist Jobbik party is the third largest party and could well form a government one day
GT49er
Well-known member
Agree; dismissing a post as 'Juvenile nonsense' was rather a ...... err ....... juvenile comment to make. I'm not sure exactly how close to PR the French system is, but their equivalent of the BNP (le Penn's lot) are not far away from the top job there either, are they?
AlbionPics&SouthCoastTwit
New member
It wouldn't happen in Germany..............oh wait..............it does happen in Germany................well, what-da-ya-know!!!
The point you seem to be wilfully ignoring is that the electorate voted for them. Voted. In a democratic fashion. Neither you or I may like it, but Jobbik gained over 20% of the Hungarian vote, so if that proportion of the population want them to represent them, who are you to say they can't. In this country, we may well see Cameron's government in a couple of years time go cap in hand to the DUP for support. Whilst I am not suggesting that the DUP are an extremist party, they represent a tiny minority who will hold the balance of power.
Whilst PR does allow a multiplicity of parties, I seriously doubt that in this country the Monster Raving or BNP or whoever will ever "hold the balance of power" - they would still be extremely unlikely to gain any seats in Parliament, unless of course, the people actually voted in enough number. In which case why not let democracy work. Or would you rather the DUP calling the shots?
Don Quixote
Well-known member
- Nov 4, 2008
- 8,355
We should probably actually elect people to sit in the House of Lords. That could be PR.
beorhthelm
A. Virgo, Football Genius
- Jul 21, 2003
- 35,327
that would be a horrible idea, as apart from the core problems of an elected second chamber they'd be forever bleating on about having more legitimacy, even though they were elected on the basis of being the second chamber. Liberals screwed up this reform in an attempt to rush into it. funny how for all their good intentions they screwed up two such important issues, almost as if they hadnt really planned what to do...