Political update on Proportional Representation, from John Birchall
Just what is this PR business all about?
This is a minefield to negotiate and write on but here goes!
At present the UK parliament is elected by first-past-the-post. So, in the current system, people get a single vote for who they want to represent their constituency and whichever candidate gets the most votes wins.
In the most recent election this resulted in:
The Conservative received most votes (36%) and 306 seats. However, the Liberal Democrats received 23% of the vote and just 57 seats = 9% of seats. Whatever one’s opinion on electoral reform this is hard to argue as being ‘fair’ – unless you always win with the first past the post system!
Not surprisingly the Liberal Democrats made electoral reform part of deal in which they would support the Conservatives.
At present the Tories have offered a referendum on the alternative vote system. If this had been used on 6th May, then according to the Electoral Reform Society the following would have happened:
Now, that looks to have been a significant enough change to have allowed Messrs Brown and Clegg to have formed a coalition. A more ‘natural’ partnership in the opinion of most experts.
Though a better results for the Liberals it would have meant that their share of the vote was not translated into a more representative number of seats. Might Mr Clegg have bargained more for say the single transferable vote?
If he had done and been successful then this would have been the result:
Mr Clegg could then have chosen his partner and so exacted a greater political reward for his support. It is not a surprise to discover that neither Labour nor Conservatives support a change to this system!
Alternative +
This is the same as AV to elect most of the Commons but with a second element - the "plus" part - which would be used to elect 100 MPs in a more directly proportional system.
AV+ has yet to be put into practice anywhere in the world.
But what would have happened if the most pure of all systems had been in place on 6th May?
Proportional Representation result
The simplest version of proportional representation would be to give all parties seats in parliament based directly on their share of the vote. In practice, countries which employ PR have thresholds in place to screen out the smallest parties.
Whichever system had been in use the Conservatives would still have won the greatest number of seats.
But if the electorate really did want a coalition the other systems may have been a more accurate reflection of just how such a joining together of parties should have looked.