There has never has been TRUE democracy in the UK, ever. Our voting system and our parliament remains medieval.
There are two main problems, one is that a referendum on the 'Alternative Vote' system was held in May 2011 (who remembers that I wonder?). The referendum concerned whether or not to replace the present "first-past-the-post" system with the "alternative vote" (AV) method. AV is not the best form of PR in my opinion. It is too complex.
The proposal to introduce AV was rejected by 67.9% of voters on a national turnout of 42.2%, a turnout not much better than that of local elections. I suspect that, because the vote ran in tandem with the local elections that year, only those who bothered to vote in those bothered with the AV vote.
Secondly, neither of the main parties have much interest in any alternative to the FPTP system as they are both power hungry and always lust for full control.
I agree that FPTP is unrepresentative and I feel it will get worse as we currently have a prime minister and government which does not respect convention (convention has always been important in a country with no written constitution). The system works just as long as governments show a high level of honesty and integrity. Once that is no longer respected, the voters become disconnected from and suspicious of politicians and an increasing number will not vote at all. That is also dangerous to democracy.
The current government is pushing through it's Elections Bill which will seek to erode the power of the Electoral Commision in the operation and undertaking of elections, further eroding democracy.
We are living in dangerous times and, unfortunately, many either can't see it or don't care.
