LibDem party conference.

[Suff]

Man's in denial. Along with his party.

The Greens are, however, in gear to take lib dem seats...

[cromwell]

Maybe Suff, but Brighton council is run by the Greens and they have been a disaster. So it will be interesting to see if the Green MP there manages to retain her seat.

[TheOstrich]

So people in the UK are not hearing a solution to their problems. The problems get worse every day and very few of the parties are talking solutions to those problems. The major difference is that we don't have Proportional Representation. If we did, UKIP's rise would grow and grow.

That is one place PR really does work. It shows people that their vote can really work for them. If they are upset enough about something they can come out in their droves and vote, then really see the result of their vote. That is harder in the UK but not impossible. By any means.

This is exactly what I've been parroting on about for years. Unfortunately, as long as we have first-past-the-post, we will never see a proper democratic reflection of people's views, and that is because people have no real incentive to turn out and vote in those constituencies, like Crommers and mine, where the results are effectively already written along party lines. My vote, and the votes of countless thousands across the country, are effectively a meaningless exercise, a waste of our time. But under a proper PR system they would count towards something positive, even if it were a few minority seats.

You know, if UKIP has, in general, a 15% share of the votes in the next election, under the purest form of PR, that translates into 97 seats ......

[Suff]

In my experience of observing this in action, PR tends to put the power into the hands of the most ruthless groups. Especially when the other parties are ideologically opposed.

Also it removes the whole question of parachutes. You are unlikely to ever get the MP you want.

[Workingman]

In the purest form of PR all the votes go into the hat and the parliamentary seats are divided up accordingly. Constituencies as we currently recognise them, where one MP represents an area, would disappear. In Ossie's example UKIP would effectively have 97 constituencies; a party getting 25% of the vote would get 162 seats/constituencies, and so on. Under such a system UKIP would divide the country up into 97 "seats" whereas the party with 25% of the vote would divide the country up into 162 "Seats". In effect each area would get multiple MPs. However, the system would lead to hierarchical party lists with the big hitters at the top. It also does away with the link between an MP and his/her constituency, though that has become irrelevant in recent years.

Never mind, it is only a pipe dream. The two main parties would lose out so they will never, ever, go for it.

[Suff]

It is amusing though isn't it? Work together or submit to the UKIP... I can just see the Tories and Labour doing that....

We could wind up like Greece... Or Sweden. Or Austria....