[joeysteele]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

ok, so what should we do, have a vote every year, every time someone thinks up a new voting system?

I mean, the tories made no secret of not wanting electoral change. so did labour ... they put forward a system that actually had the most possibility of getting support, and the public said no.

We all get angry at elections when they don't go our way, but constantly moaning about the system becomes very tiresome, to me anyway. There are many more important things in life to get worked up about I think. For a new system to get support it needs to be a lot more than the grass looks greener

Actually it is hardly every year, the AV vote was 2011,over 5 years ago now.

I repeat, AV was not that big a change, what we need is a proposal for a full PR system of voting not AV.
Where parties that get over 10% of the votes at least get a fair proportion of seats too.

The Lib Dems got 8% in 2015, they got 8 seats, UKIP was around 13% and got only 1 seat.
We have now had 3 elections in a row where the leading party has had over 300 seats for only between 35% and 37% of the votes cast.

Also 'we do not need' a referendum either, just party policy for people to vote on in a general election.
PR was brought in for the European elections, the Welsh, Scottish and Irish assemblies too, all done without a referendum.
PR now for the national govt of the UK would just be bringing all in line with everything else around the UK and would be fairer.

As I believe in consensus politics too,I now see PR as the only way to bring together more the consensus minded MPs of all Parties,to maybe then actually work together more too.
Something that will never be achieved at all under this outdated current system, that was not designed really for multi party elections.

Also please don't play the party politics card with me, I am hammering here the Labour govts win in 2005 too, they got a 68 overall majority then, with only around 35% of the votes, as opposed to the Conservatives gaining just over 32%.
The 2010 govt was only made credible by the joining of the Lib Dems in full coalition, with their votes and seats won in that general election.

I balance my arguments whenever I can.