ETA: Ummm... Apparently this already got posted, mid-edit... This is the full thing. It's horri ly long, either way. Sorry.Oh, also UKIP want proportional representation in addition to a general election, that way their millions of votes would translate into MPs
top bants
My problem with PR is who would be my MP?
Right now, I know that the Right Honourable Polly Tishen (Mauve Party candidate and successful electee for the constituency of Starverville within the unitary authority of North Central Hamshiresex) is my MP, because I live in that place, whether or not I even voted for her (or even voted!), and my pleasure or displeasure at her ability to deal with my issue of the local dog-mess mountain threatening to spill over into my back garden, or the threat of an HS4 station being built over the top of my grandkids' school (on massive concrete stilts, no less!) translates into my willingness or otherwise to vote for her (
not her party) in the next election cycle.
With simple list-based PR, an individual Mauve Party candidate has a position on the party list and likely is either is assured their place, so long as some very low proportion of the public
of the whole country contributes enough votes to qualify enough of the list, or an effective reserve candidate will be so low in tne party's own favoured rankings that it would take an unprecedented swing in popularity towards their political faction to get them anywhere, and perhaps change the minds of their party leadership about minor, but off-message, differences in non-core party policies that the public would actually like their (broadly supported) platform to adopt as a nuance in their representation in parliament.
And who do I see about my dog-mess mountain or stilted HS4? Perhaps a minister (or shadow-minister) for the Department Of Righting Those Particular Wrongs? But then they've got to deal with a whole
nation's-worth of complaints. My party's 'Gateway' team? But what if I don't
have a party, and of course I can't (and shouldn't be able to) prove which way I voted? Maybe each party takes its elected list members and assigns them a subset of the country (whole, or just the bits they feel confident they have enough grassroots in) and creates an unofficial constituency not necessarily contiguous with any competing party, and treat the person assigned as 'local MP' for the region, for those that contributed to the party power-base? But same issue regarding proving a vote, or else the non-democracy of party subscrptions earning access to the representational process, even if this means that smaller parties have to deal with fewer requests, averaging out the workload.
Perhaps we need a hybrid dual geographic voting (current system, perhaps double-sized zones) and list-based topups (biased to 'rectify' FPTP failings, to approximate 'lost' MPs from distributing non-supermajority votes 'wasted' by coming close-second/third/etc; and thin but consistent minority views, from across
all areas, vs. localised standout parties. Give a choice of approaching localised MPs (whatever party, but your area) or else non-local 'freelancers' of a party that represents your viewpoint most accurately.
But how complicated is
that??
(This message started at one side of the Pennines on one train, finished now on the other side of the Pennines on another. Not surprising that four new messages appeared in the meantime. Expected more.)