Proprtional Representation - some good news

keepingquiet

Well when we had a referendum on this back in 2011 hardly anyone turned out to vote.

FPTP isn't perfect by any means but not sure PR has as much support as you think.

Look at France- what a pickle they're in.

The current pickle is due to Macron who selected Barnier as PM.

PR in the UK would not be the same as in France because our head of state does not chose the PM.

We have some friends of long standing who are LP members and supporters. Over the years we have had many arguments, usually after dinner with a few bottles of wine. We are also LP supporters and I have been a member for a few years (Corbyn era).

I have been annoyed at the way in which staunch members accept everything that the LP says without criticism. Thus, my hope is for a decent type of PR and, if the LP loses some seats, so will the Tories which should benefit smaller parties.

I think that slow decision making could be a good thing. We have suffered a lot of a result of strong govt - such a nationalisation and the vast cost of HS2. Obviously one would hope that in a time of emergency all parties would come together quickly.

As an active Lib Dem, I've been a supporter of PR for years. It does give a fairer representation of voters' preferences.
But it's a case of Be Careful What You
Wish For, with Reform in the picture now.
And I can't help looking at France and Germany and thinking Ho Hum.

I won't be voting in a general election again unless proportional representation is introduced or the facility to say "none of the above", with consequences for a rerun if enough people say that. It's a farce that we have a government that got 33% of votes cast (20% of the electorate) yet have a huge majority in Parliament and seem to think they have a mandate to do what they want, whether it was in their manifesto or not. For too many of us it does not make sense to vote for the party you support, or we have to think about tactical or negative voting to try to keep out a party we don't like. I won't be doing that any more. Sadly, the government seem unconcerned about our endangered democracy and determined to maintain the status quo because they think it is in their interest. To say that our current system is good because it stops a party like Reform having significant representation in Parliament is unprincipled to say the least.

The last election, in particular, was subjected to a great deal of 'tactical' voting (anyone but the Tories!). Many Lib-Dem & Green voters now seem to regret voting Labour. Would Reform have got anything like as many votes had the Election been run under P.R.?
As Sir Keir said “Look, I remind myself that very many people didn’t vote Labour at the last election. I am not surprised many of them want a re-run.” Or, we won so we'll do as we like, and ignore any public criticism.

Tizliz

We have PR in Scotland and it seems very complicated. You know who your constituency MSP is but then you have 7 regional ones and I have little idea as to whom they are or what they do! Because of the way the list works you seem to get some Regional MSPs you have never heard of.

Sounds a right dogs dinner to me.

A lot of Labour supporters voted Lib Dem too dayvidg, it was indeed anything to get the Tories out. It’s also a fact that Labour came top of the polls in 412 seats. Like it or not, they have the mandate to govern.

MaizieD

The 'PR' offered in 2011 was not a good version. Cameron only went forward with a referendum to keep the Liberal party with whom the tories were in coalition happy.

I think we must know by now that referendums aren't a good idea...

Referendums in the Netherlands seem to work fine. If people vote the wrong way, they just make them vote again - correctly, this time.

David49

OldFrill

EEJit

MaizieD

The 'PR' offered in 2011 was not a good version. Cameron only went forward with a referendum to keep the Liberal party with whom the tories were in coalition happy.

I think we must know by now that referendums aren't a good idea...

They seem to work well in Switzerland

Voter participation in Switzerland is very low.

Switzerland has referendums on something or other every year

Swiss votation is at least yearly but most of them rarely bother participating.

In principle I support PR but the version we were offered previously gave a list of candidates who had to be listed in order of preference. Some entries would be people I would vote against, ( the extremist and bigots) but all my vote would then be lost.
I think that a single transferable vote would be the best idea.