Guest 745- Registered: 27 Mar 2012
- Posts: 3,370
Proportional representation (PR) is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular party then roughly 30% of seats will be won by that party.
What do you think on this one ,
maybe we will see a deal on this one with Labour and the liberals
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
There was a referendum not so long ago, Keith, not exactly proportional representation, but somewhere along those lines.
The first past the vote system is rather questionable, but if a raving Loony party got 1% of the vote, they'd have 1% of seats in a council or assembly.
That would make a difference if there were at least 100 seats!
Guest 725- Registered: 7 Oct 2011
- Posts: 1,418
And the danger is that the green party get some of their lunatic followers elected.
Guest 745- Registered: 27 Mar 2012
- Posts: 3,370
Would that not be democratic ?
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
fully in favour myself but won't ever happen, the 2 major parties rely on not much over a third of the vote to gain power.
alex refers to the referendum on the single transferable vote, i was all in favour but the party machines came out loudly against it so people were too fearful to vote for change.
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
the green party controls brighton council(just to even up the debate)
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
The Green party has a member of Parliament too!
Guest 725- Registered: 7 Oct 2011
- Posts: 1,418
If anyone could invent the perfect voting system they would probably earn themselves the Nobel prize for something.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
so leave it be till they do
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Ross Miller
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,707
Why Keith?
Do we wait for the perfect solution for other things in life before we do anything?
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
'The problem', and therefore the solution, is the citizen. [although the title 'citizen' in the UK is an honorary one it is useful short-hand to denote those of us with the voting-franchise, and the potential so to be]
For a Democracy to begin to function, homage must be paid to the intrinsic bottom-up nature that underlies it.
This is not the case in the UK, it is not the case even with the few who post here.
While we are, each and all, content to worry and fret over 'them', day-in and day-out for five years or so, and perhaps spend an hour every five years or so in wrestling with a supposed choice before making our mark little or nothing (mostly nothing) will change, and certainly not change for the greater good.
We live in a loveless marriage, do jobs we don't like, eat the same old stuff every Thursday. In short;live the life of the tethered goat, why shouldn't we do politics in that same cosy fashion?
BUT!
If we were to accept the simple truth that Politics IS People, and that by 'people' we mean 'I', and not allow ourselves to be re-drugged into thinking that Voting is all about what the BBC infomercials say it is: [you will have to come up with these particulars yourself, for I have long ago given-up watching - the price of this or that, regulation both local & national etc.because, plainly, such is Tommy-rot.] Rather than demanding more from 'them' and never getting it, we should demand a little from ourselves and from our neighbours. Attend to the wishes and desires of our own communities and demand that Government do likewise.
This is not as hard as it may appear, for IF there was a sustained up-take of the voting-franchise;a steady increase in voter-registration attended by a expression of clear intent to actually go out and vote, no seat would be safe, not one.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Ross Miller- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,707
Well said Tom
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi
Guest 745- Registered: 27 Mar 2012
- Posts: 3,370
So do you think eddy and Vince will do a deal on PR ?
ps. and the Lords
Guest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
Very well put Tom. Perhaps if more paid attention it would see an end to the "safe seats" and the nonsense used by the see-saw parties in convincing some that there are "wasted votes". No vote is wasted if the voter actually thinks that the person they are voting for would do the best for them, regardless of which ideological block-vote grouping they belong to.
No Keith B, none of the so-called major parties will ever do more than pay lip service to electoral reform while all the polls etc. preserve the see-saw of government.
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
Well put, Tom.
If we took part in local democracy to start with, and stood and argued the cause, and grouped with our like-minded neighbours for what we believe in on a particular issue, then we'd have the foundations of Democracy.
No seat would be "safe".
We'd then do likewise for national Government, and we wouldn't have a situation where people choose between two or three options with a one-off cross on the ballot sheet.
As I always said, elections NEVER start 2 weeks before the ballot, people who want to be elected should always campaign, day and night, months on end, year after year.
