A mixed bag.

[medsec222]

We had no appetite to vote but we both decided ti vote for the independent candidate rather than any of the main parties. As expected the Labour candidate got in by a huge majority, but the independent candidate did come second.

[Suff]

UKIP splitting the country like no time since the Civil War(s) of 1642-1651 is something to be proud of? Give me strength!

The country needed to be split because the minority was ruling the majority through sheer inertia.

The UKIP has done something no other party has done. On a single issue (Labour was many issues), it enabled the voters to change the policy of the government by voting for a single issue party.

They got the referendum, they helped win the referendum and they have given us the one thing that they stood for. Exit from the EU.

If that took splitting the country down the middle, then so be it. Indyref in Scotland caused rifts and pain like you have never seen, Brexit splits? Peanuts, nothing like it. In Scotland families are torn right down the middle over it and people learned that their vote counts if they use it properly.

So, yes, UKIP did what is said on the tin and now it's probably going to die. Having done its job.

[Workingman]

Which minority would that be? The Tory or Labour minorities who kept winning general elections without getting a majority share of the votes cast or an even smaller share of the electorate. Maybe it's the SNP with about 5% of the total vote or the LibDems with about 15%: who knows? It could not possibly be Remain because there is no such thing as a Remain party, they are alive in all parties, except UKIP.

The UKIP has done something no other party has done. On a single issue (Labour was many issues), it enabled the voters to change the policy of the government by voting for a single issue party.

Or, rather more truthfully, UKIP forced the Conservatives (who have many, many issues of their own), but mainly Cameron, to offer the referendum in order to keep the Conservatives in power... or so he hoped. That would be the mega huge party, UKIP, with something like 12% of the vote - definitely not a minority in the minds of some people.

The end result is that we are now in hock to a party with less than 1% of the vote, the DUP, now that's what I call being governed and held back by a minority..

[Suff]

The end result is that we are now in hock to a party with less than 1% of the vote, the DUP, now that's what I call being governed and held back by a minority..

Now that is a result worthy of PR..... Because that is what PR usually delivers. Because, let's face it, every country is split on what they believe about how it should be run and who should deliver what they want. Leaving the minorities with the casting vote.

Nice to see real "Democracy" working. But then most people don't actually like "Real" democracy. Most people like to talk about it.
The DUP holding the balance of power is about the most EU thing the UK has done in decades...

Nice to see the Irony.

[Workingman]

Now that is a result worthy of PR..... Because that is what PR usually delivers.

Except that it is not. We do not have PR in general elections, remember? It is a form of gerrymandering the FPTP system by the Conservatives to give themselves - the party - an advantage. The votes of the DUP were bought with a bung.

At least when the Cons got into bed with the LibDems it was done with a party gaining 22% of the vote and 57 seats. Had that election been under PR the seats would have been:

Lab - 228
Con - 210
LibD - 143
Others - 69

It wasn't, so it is water under the bridge.

Nice to see real "Democracy" working.

It would be, but we are unlikely to see it in the UK.... there are too many brown envelopes floating about.

[Suff]

WM you just made my point. PR in the Last election would have given a Lab Lib coalition with no choice for anything but a coalition barring a 40% swing.

Exactly what Scotland saw in each election before Referendum politics took over and gave SNP the vote they needed.

If you finally get PR, all you will need to do is ask London, Birmingham and Manchester who they want and that is who you will get. I don't want that and I know you don't want to be ruled by big city politics..

It would be like the detailed Electoral college results from America where 95% of the state was Republican but the state goes blue on the result of one or two cities.

You say we don't know how PR would go. We do. Welsh assembly, Scottish Parliament, both PR both straight coalition or minority government with the one exception of where Scots voted for an independence referendum. And got it. They also got the poison fish but that is another story..

Never mind the vast body of the EU who are almost solid PR and solid coalition. Worse, a lot of Grand coalitions with 3 or more parties.

Britain has always hated coalitions. You vote for one thing and you always get something else. We can rationalise losing, it is only another 5 years and you get another chance. Now imagine the world of politics where nobody loses and nobody wins and nobody ever gets what they voted for.

That is the world of PR that you describe.

I, for one, do not believe that if you told the truth to the electorate, that they would vote for that. Even after 13 years of Blair and Brown and nearly half a Century of Europe changing the face of the UK, I do not believe most people are that far gone.

It sounds like a wonderful idea. Just like communism did to the working man of the 19th century!

[Workingman]

Think about it Suff, think about it.

A Lab Lib coalition with the SNP and Greens roped in. A mahoosive coalition of mainly Remain leaning parties. No A50. No Break5hit.

What's not to like?

[Suff]

What's not to like?

Erm, the will of the people. Apparently...

But then Politicians never did like that did they??