The Summer 2016 UK Political and Constitutional Crisis

[Agelastus]

PR! PR! PR!

NO! NO! NO!

[Crazy_Ivan80]

There are many seats with huge majorities for one party or the other, most votes are wasted under that system.

How many of those seats with whopping majorities actually amount to more than 50% of the local electorate? I suspect it's a lot less than people think, particularly with voter turnout below 70% for the last few elections.

Voting may prove to be pointless but not voting is definitely pointless. Why the young can't seem to grasp this is beyond me.

Or maybe I've just been over-influenced by a Colleen McCullough book; I think the quote goes roughly "truthfully, there was no one I wanted to vote for, but not voting at all just avoids the issue." (like a coward would do being the subtext.)

not voting is no different that voting for the winner, regardless of who that is.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Multi-member constituencies is my preference. That way we keep the local link and get a more representative house of commons.

[Sheilbh]

I would look forward to England's version of the Healy-Raes:
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/election-2016/one-way-of-making-an-entrance-healyrae-brothers-host-minisession-on-top-of-a-car-outside-the-dil-34528417.html

[Agelastus]

Multi-member constituencies is my preference. That way we keep the local link and get a more representative house of commons.

It's been used before in the UK (for counties and universities IIRC) but in the modern era of parties and not personalities I presume you'd want to mess around with Transferable Votes etc. rather than simply having the top two (or however many) candidates elected?

[Richard Hakluyt]

Multi-member constituencies is my preference. That way we keep the local link and get a more representative house of commons.

It's been used before in the UK (for counties and universities IIRC) but in the modern era of parties and not personalities I presume you'd want to mess around with Transferable Votes etc. rather than simply having the top two (or however many) candidates elected?

I thinking of 5 or so members returned for each constituency, one would vote for a party which would have an ordered list of candidates, a formula would then determine who the winners are.

So a tory area might return 3 tories, 1 labour and 1 lib-dem............instead of the 5 tories they return under fptp (and vice versa for othe parties in different areas of course).

[Agelastus]

I thinking of 5 or so members returned for each constituency, one would vote for a party which would have an ordered list of candidates, a formula would then determine who the winners are.

So a tory area might return 3 tories, 1 labour and 1 lib-dem............instead of the 5 tories they return under fptp (and vice versa for othe parties in different areas of course).

You lose me as soon as you start talking about "lists"; I consider them anathema to local accountability. I feel much the same way about the current fad for party lists of "approved" candidates and god save the local constituency party that tries to go its' own way.

Edit: It's also noticeable with the town council elections, that do use multi-member wards, that full slates of, say, six Tories do not get through automatically, at least in my town. It's always a mix.

[Richard Hakluyt]

A list of 3-5, selected by the local parties, is what I'm suggesting........not as bad as a national list.

[Zanza]

Is there a statistic about how many MPs actually live in the constituency they represent?

[Agelastus]

Is there a statistic about how many MPs actually live in the constituency they represent?

It would tell you that all of them own a home in or very close to their constituency, not whether or not they've been teleported across the country to fight that seat because they're on particular Central Office list.

[The Brain]

About 10-20% are rotten boroughs anyway.

[dps]

Interesting that the first anti-democratic forces on the march, so to speak, are from the Centre and Left.

Not a bit surprising to me.

[The Minsky Moment]

I'm pretty sure if the US had a popular referendum on staying in NAFTA or the UN our turnout would be in that range and that we'd vote to leave.  There's a lot of impassioned people that think everything that's wrong with the country can be traced to foreigners telling Americans what to do.

Meanwhile just about everyone else in the world traces their problems back to Americans telling them what to do.

So we're even?

[The Minsky Moment]

I think at the minute everyone's looking for ways to weaken their currency. We've just found a way of doing it by accident and in such a way that no-one can accuse us of 'competitive devaluation' or currency wars

Yes it's a man-made natural disaster.

[garbon]

Interesting that the first anti-democratic forces on the march, so to speak, are from the Centre and Left.

Not a bit surprising to me.

Yes, because the Right is so often the bastion of democracy.