Taking the BBC results table, which still has one constituency to declare, and using some Exel™ jiggery-pokery you get this table. That is, taking the popular vote and allocating the proportion of seats dependent on the proportion of the electorate that voted for that party makes interesting reading (don’t forget the rounding!). Bare in mind that I have not read any papers on how proportional representation actually works, or indeed if people knew that we didn’t have a first past the post mechanism would they vote differently? I’m sure they would. So this table is not necessarily representative of a PR Election but it does make you think about the level of negotiation needed to reach agreement.
You mean they'll have to actually come to agreements with each other, instead of just continually bashing each other? Well, shucks :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, they will have to agree and that agreement will require compromises (that I referred to on your blog) that may not be palatable to all in their respective parties but they must do it!
ReplyDeleteIn amongst all the various discussions I heard one commentator discussing the adversarial nature of our political system. That even our Parliament building is designed for two parties standing opposite each other and arguing. For a PR based election, a government will need to look for the similarities and accommodate the differences of potential collaborators. It is quite likely that we'll need a radical restructuring of the physical infrastructure as well as the philosophical basis for government in the UK (of Great Britain and Northern Ireland).
Very true, had forgotten that facet - interesting times ahead then!
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