Proportional Representation is necessary – and the only way to stop voter apathy – Vince Cable

https://www.gbnews.com/opinion/proportional-representation-election-2024-vince-cable

by signed7

14 comments

  1. Another way to stop voter apathy would be to offer and follow through on policies that help people

  3. He is right though. It does feel pointless voting for most places in the country where the opposition either have no chance or are no choice at all.

  4. The ONLY way we get PR is to ensure the labour majority is legendary to the point parliament is over. They won’t support it…why would they now? But maybe in two elections time, it might be something that sneaks into discussions if it’s the only way whatever left of the tories survives

  5. Yep… PR, accountability, transparency, and participation at all levels of parliament.

    Also, we should geo-engineer one of the mountains in the UK *somehow* into an active volcano and launch all the rich people into it; I’d call it Mt. Cuntmore.

  6. Alas, no voting system is perfect. PR tends to lead to governments unable to decide anything and very frequent elections.

    No surprise that the LibDems are in favour though as it would give small parties like them more seats. So there is every chance their suggesting PR is out of enlightened self interest rather than justice and fairness. Sigh.

  7. I do enjoy the constant Reddit Tug of War between “We need PR” vs the realisation this would give Reform a significant number of seats.

  8. Voting reform is absolutely necessary, FPTP may well increase the chance of a “stable” government but it removes choice and forces tactical voting.

    At no point in my life have I ever actually voted for a party that aligns with my views, purely because the constituencies I’ve lived in have always been the same two parties contesting with the others having no hope in hell of winning the seat, so wasted votes. I ve always had to vote tactically.

    I can see why people stop voting altogether, our system is extremely undemocratic. This year I’ll just waste my vote on a protest but It would be bloody lovely if we had a system in which every vote counts..

  10. Its funny because he has a point and any Labour or Tory supporter will try and weasel around how a system that strictly props up 2 parties is best for the country when it obviously isn’t and Labour are gonna prove that the next 4 years.

  11. I’ve lived in countries with PR. It is a horrible system.

    MPs have no personal accountability to constituents.

    Fringe radicals constantly get into government as part of wide coalitions and then proceed to block everything in order to push their idiotic single issue and dictate wider policy.

    It’s sacrificing efficiency for fairness and getting neither in the end.

  13. Australian here. Proportional representation is very important and you should all be gunning for it. The majors have to take notice of what the minors are saying and doing, which means the majors are much less prone to going wild and having policies designed to get people out to vote.

    Eg, our Labor party gets pulled to the left whenever it strays too far to the right as it will bleed preferences to the greens. If say people put greens above labour, and labour gets eliminated in the count, those preferences can flow to liberal and elect them, a result that labour doesnt want. If greens get put below labour, then greens get eliminated and the preferences flow to labor, increasing their chances of election.

    Sure, it will take a cycle or two to settle down, but we get it here in Aus, which is how we have our current government delivering on environmental polices that a broad sector of the community wants, and our conservatives equivalent with their heads still in the sand, likely to be out of government for a while until they start listening to the minors again.

  14. Maybe there would be less apathy if the candidates actually made it clear what their beliefs are and what their policies would be – instead they have zero information about them available and simply say ‘vote for me purely based on my party’. A quote from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy sums up what it is like trying to find information on local candidates:

    “But the plans were on display…”

    “On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”

    “That’s the display department.”

    “With a flashlight.”

    “Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”

    “So had the stairs.”

    “But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”

    “Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”

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