Principles for sale

alexhilton Thu Sep 13, 2007 at 02:53:43 PM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook

I have written this piece on the Guardian's Commentisfree on electoral reform and the possibility of coalition with the Liberals.



I'd be grateful if you would take a look and let me know your thoughts

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Principles for sale | 4 comments (4 topical)

Re: Principles for sale (#1)

by NorthernMonkey on Thu Sep 13, 2007 at 03:28:24 PM GMT

I'd agree to PR being used in a replacement for the House of Lords and give it more powers so it could block legislation from the Commons.


But I'm with Gordon on this one, I'd prefer to stick with one MP per constituency in the Commons. But we could change from FPTP to Instant Runoff where voters rank candidates rather than just vote for one and the winning candidate must get 50%+ of the vote or the bottom candidate drops out and redistributes their votes.


I also think there is zero chance of a Tory-LibDem coalition anytime soon - the two parties are just miles apart.


Re: Principles for sale (#3)

by SocialistAC on Thu Sep 13, 2007 at 04:37:00 PM GMT

"I also think there is zero chance of a Tory-LibDem coalition anytime soon - the two parties are just miles apart." Depends. At local level in my area, the activists and councillors are basically Yellow Tories - Conservatives without the hang'em and flog'em social values. Kind of like Germany's FDP, then - Liberals in the European sense of the phrase. However, the student LibDems and LibDem voters I've encountered have all been social-liberals under the illusion that the LibDems are left of Labour. So there's a natural fault line in the party. I think for PR to work in Westminster, the LibDems would have to split in two, into left and right liberal parties, if only so voters could know what they're voting for. (But then again, that might not be needed as I've heard strong rumours that the longterm aim of the Labour leadership is to reconstruct Labour in the mould of Italy's new Partito Democratico.)


[ Parent ]

Re: Principles for sale (#2)

by Radford Mann on Thu Sep 13, 2007 at 03:53:33 PM GMT

Good article, Alex. I agree absolutely with PR for the House of Commons and, frankly, I don't really care how we get it so long as we do. Like you I would prefer that we did it ourselves of our own choice but I can't really see that happening. I suspect it would take a hung parliament, and even then, only if the Liberals can find something approaching courage to insist on it now and not in some far distant time in the future.


However, I cannot see a Liberal / Conservative coalition ever occurring. This is simply because the Tories are utterly opposed to PR and know that if we had it the chances of them being in government again post PR would be slim.


If you want to talk sytems, then I'm an Additional Member man (no pun intended, stop giggling at the back) with half the MPs elected as we do now and the other half from regional lists with a 5% threshold.


Re: Principles for sale (#4)

by Mark Colburn on Thu Sep 13, 2007 at 11:38:25 PM GMT


Principles for sale | 4 comments (4 topical)