The British electoral system is fundamentally broken in its first past the post system. It disenfranchises millions of voters in safe seats throughout the country. My seat is super safe, hasn’t changed hands since 1974, possibly longer. Still, the 25% of voters who didn’t support the winner won’t have their voices heard, and in other marginal electorates it’s just under half of the voters underrepresented.
The solution for the UK (and US) would be to adopt a proportional representation voting system. Not the single transferable vote of Australia like what was proposed years ago.
I’m talking about Mixed Member Proportional representation (MMP), used in NZ and other countries. You have two votes, one for your local MP and one for a party. They don’t need to be for the same political group. Parliament is then made up of a combination of electorate MPs and party vote MPs (roughly two thirds electorate one third party).
So even if you are in a safe seat, at least one of your two votes still counts. It makes coalitions more likely, which means more viewpoints are considered. In NZ this has led to parties like the Greens having a bit of influence in govt, whereas under FPTP those green voters were completely disenfranchised.
The solution for the UK (and US) would be to adopt a proportional representation voting system. Not the single transferable vote of Australia like what was proposed years ago.
I’m talking about Mixed Member Proportional representation (MMP), used in NZ and other countries. You have two votes, one for your local MP and one for a party. They don’t need to be for the same political group. Parliament is then made up of a combination of electorate MPs and party vote MPs (roughly two thirds electorate one third party).
So even if you are in a safe seat, at least one of your two votes still counts. It makes coalitions more likely, which means more viewpoints are considered. In NZ this has led to parties like the Greens having a bit of influence in govt, whereas under FPTP those green voters were completely disenfranchised.
More info https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/428085/election-2020-our...