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I think we have quite a confused relationship with the voting system in this country. On the one hand people lament parties governing with <40% of the vote, yet on the other hand when no party did get a majority in 2010 the country responded to five years of a coalition government (that had nearly 60% of the vote between them) by wiping the junior partner off the political map. If we see things purely in terms of national vote share then that government was, theoretically, the most representative one in modern British history. Yet of course it's not quite as tidy as that in coalition governments: parties are often more cynical in their tactics and strategy, they can be less accountable because they have excuses for not implementing their pre-election pledges, they can find themselves crippled by inaction and compromises can have to be made which end up satisfying no one. I don't buy that the Lib Dems were uniquely awful coalition partners who just followed the Tory line. They did achieve some good - much more than had they shunned the coalition and just stayed a protest party - and they did have a liberalising effect on the government but the reality was that their potential was seriously restricted in their role as the minor party.

My other gripe with PR is that it takes away the MP's ties to his local area, and regions don't have as much choice over who represents them: it will often be imposed on them instead. The good thing with FPTP is the power it gives to localities to choose their own representative in parliament.