A referendum on a new electoral system will be held next year, the BBC learns

[Tintinnabulate]

A referendum on a new electoral system will be held next year, the BBC learns

Just came up on BBC News Website.

[MrPinkPanther]

Shame AV sucks

[-:Undertaker:-]

A waste of time, until we get proportional representation then its just going to keep the status quo trio in power.

[FlyingJesus]

Yeah let's implement PR so we can have an even more split government

[-:Undertaker:-]

Yeah let's implement PR so we can have an even more split government

The rest of the world copes with a sometimes split government with the proportional representation system, if the people [electorate] vote in a certain way then why should their proportion of opinion be denied just because they havent voted in the 'correct way' to make it easy for the politicians?

[FlyingJesus]

The only way PR would be politically accurate would be if you had to pass some sort of aptitude test before voting, because I know for certain (due to some people I know and how I know they voted) that there are plenty of people voting the more "radical" parties simply because they're common idiots who have no idea about actual policies. If this was done then you'd get complaints about it not being democratic enough or being prejudiced or whatever, so you can't win either way. There is always going to be disenfranchisement unless you simply allow the most basic of PR systems which would be fuelled by ignorance.

[MrPinkPanther]

Yeah let's implement PR so we can have an even more split government

Democracy should come above everything or are you not just as bad as the people you are trying to oppress?

status quo trio in power.

The Liberal Democrats are unanimously Pro-PR and haven't been in power for 100 years. There is a big difference between being "in power" and being a minority in a coalition government.

[FlyingJesus]

Democracy should come above everything or are you not just as bad as the people you are trying to oppress?

Less democracy =/= oppression

Besides, not everyone's opinion is valuable let's face it

[-:Undertaker:-]

The only way PR would be politically accurate would be if you had to pass some sort of aptitude test before voting, because I know for certain (due to some people I know and how I know they voted) that there are plenty of people voting the more "radical" parties simply because they're common idiots who have no idea about actual policies. If this was done then you'd get complaints about it not being democratic enough or being prejudiced or whatever, so you can't win either way. There is always going to be disenfranchisement unless you simply allow the most basic of PR systems which would be fuelled by ignorance.

I'm sorry but you cant dismiss peoples right to vote on the grounds of; you dont agree with them/think they are ignorant/consider them not worthy of voting. If I or anybody else in any consituency around the country votes for a party which does not win in their local area then their vote is not counted - how is that democracy? Just because you dont agree with somebody over their voting choice doesnt mean their choice shouldnt be considered worthy of electing a government.

For those who are wondering about FPTP, it basically means that any vote which didnt go to the winning party is discounted. With the FPTP system, you end up with a scenario like the mock one below. (bolded = votes not counted due to party not winning the seat).

Labour 22,000 = winner
Conservatives 20,000
Liberal Democrats 6,000
UKIP 2,900
BNP 1,200
Others 980

..thus meaning that a total of 31,080 people in that seat needn't have bothered voting.

[MrPinkPanther]

Less democracy =/= oppression

Besides, not everyone's opinion is valuable let's face it

It does equal oppression in this case because you are preventing a certain segment of the population from being adequately represented in parliament. I despise the views of the BNP but equally they despise my views, just because I disagree with them it doesn't mean I have any more of a right to have representation than they do. It's all about perspective. If that makes sense?