Our chosen voting system (the way we divide up and count the votes – called “first past the post”) pushes any democracy towards a two party system.

Two party systems push both parties towards having similar platforms and towards lazy slagging matches (see Parliament) instead of action.

Please read up on alternative voting systems. Ones which provide more choice. Ones which provide proportional representation in Parliament. Ones which provide better accountability at the polls. Ones in which you can vote for who you want instead of voting tactically against the party you don’t like.

There is a lot of stuff wrong with the country but voting reform is such a core and fundamental issue that I really think it is worth everyone engaging with as much as possible. It is a tough fight but it is a fight worth having and it is only going to change with public pressure.

You can learn more at:

* [https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/voting-systems/](https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/voting-systems/)
* [https://www.makevotesmatter.org.uk/first-past-the-post](https://www.makevotesmatter.org.uk/first-past-the-post)
* [https://www.labourforanewdemocracy.org.uk/](https://www.labourforanewdemocracy.org.uk/)

23 comments

  4. Neither of the two major parties will ever look seriously at changing the system as they will lose seats to what are now marginal but popular parties.

    Besides, when we had a referendum a few years ago, very few people were interested in voting for it and even fewer were interested in reform.

  5. The British public literally voted down a reform to elections that would’ve given voters more power. I don’t hold much hope for them grasping the need for proportional representation.

  6. Westminster actually applied the single transferable vote PR for a by-election in ireland in 1919 to try to dilute the Irish independence parties vote in the previous years uk general election.

    Ireland still uses it, although there a close referendum vote that nearly reverted back to fptp. A second referendum some years later put the subject to rest.

  7. Interestingly if we’d have had PR in 2015 we’d have had scores of UKIP MPs, consequently a Tory/UKIP coalition, a massive Brexit win, and Nigel would now be PM. So there’s that I suppose. Incidentally it was the change to a form of PR for MEP elections Blair pushed through the Lords using the Parliament act that brought Nigel Farage to the public’s attention in the first place. It also allowed UKIP to get MEP seats and with it nearly £500k per seat of EU funding which they diverted to further Brexit campaigning. So in other words, PR gave us Brexit.

  9. MAKE SEATS MATCH VOTES.

    This bipartisan duopoly of a shit show is degenerating year on year.

    I almost hope that the Tories win the next GE just to force Labour into finally supporting PR. Though I don’t think the country would survive another term of this uber capitalistic nonsense.

  10. We do not have a “two party system”. We have a system where you vote for an individual candidate, and the candidate with the most votes wins. The issue isnt the voting method, but the way candidates are controlled by their party. Imagine this…

    Ballot sheets do not show parties, only the names of candidates. Why does JRM have the Conservative Party logo next to his name, but not the European Research Group logo? Why does Caroline Lucas have the Green Party logo, but not the logos of the numerous other organisations to which she belongs?

    MPs should have their salaries halved. Yes.. halved. But as compensation, they continue to get paid for a period equal to what they served up to a max of 5 years. This would allow MPs to vote with their conscience and not the party whip.

    On top of this, to make the elections less about party money, each MP should submit a double sided A4 sheet of promotional material to the electoral commision. These would be independently checked against some simple rules before being published a month before the elections and sent to every voter in the constituency. This would level the playing field.

    These changes would create a far better system than PR, where the MPs would still be pressured to vote with the party and where the top of each party are near impossible to remove.

  12. It might be two parties but it looks like one big shit heap to me…

    Can’t see us getting PR although I’d relish the chance

  15. Ain’t that the truth. UK politics is a school playground. If I wanted to elect someone petty and bitchy I’d just vote for myself.

  16. >In a two party system it is easier, cheaper and more effective to cast doubt on the other party than it is to do anything actually useful for the voting public to win their votes

    Is this r/unitedkingdom or r/ some American sub?

    THE UNITED KINGDOM IS NOT A TWO PARTY SYSTEM! Thank you!

  17. > In a two party system it is easier, cheaper and more effective to cast doubt on the other party than it is to do anything actually useful for the voting public to win their votes

    I think you just summarised Labour’s current “small target” approach. Yes, that is the running theory at Labour campaign HQ. It is Keir’s approach. It was also Biden’s approach in the US. It is also Albanese’s approach in Australia. No sarcasm, that is the campaign theory of the left-of-centre parties today.

  20. How about Labour listens to its members and backs PR?

    A motion was raised at last year’s Labour conference to add PR to the next manifesto, which the majority of paid members and local leaders voted in favour of.

    The Unions and Labour’s leadership dismissed the motion.

    How is that democratic?

    FPTP is at the center of the rot of UK democracy.

    We cannot even begin a conversation about improving UK democracy until Labour listens to its members and supports PR.

    The era of the two dinosaur parties gripping onto power for themselves at all costs must end.

  21. I feels its hard to argue were a two party system, what with our 3 large parties in Parliament.

  22. You are not going to get a party into power that does anything for you. That’s not an opinion, sadly it’s a fact. The vested interests have captured the system and now the only people that get near it will be those that are all ready bought and paid for. Look past the rhetoric and you will see that Both the Tories and the Labour Party are exactly same once in power. Oh and even if you fluke a decent team into number 10 the civil service is built to wait them the fuck out. I say that Because who want’s politics getting in the way of the endless cycle of fighting for funds for their own pet projects. You can scream but LaYbOOOr spend more on the NHS as much as you like, the issue has never been funding it’s always been shit spending and drug companies that take the piss. Getting a bunch of morons in a coalition will actually make it worse because it will allow the Civil Service to use them like the puppets they are and turn them in on each other. You can talk about austerity or any of the attempted cut backs but go past the flag waving and look at the actual money and financials and you will see the lie we are living. In short we need a lean government that does very little but feed and care for those in need. Unfortunately we have a bureaucracy that came from the East India Tea company and that lives for its own goals and the peasants are living in an ever increasing tax by a thousand cuts while idiots scream we need mooooaaarrr tax coz rich booooo!!!!

  23. It’s only a two party system if you think two-dimensionally, or, put another way, it is people who think there is no alternative that create that reality !

    The Tories have a consistent “majority” of 23% of the Electorate, with Labour (also consistently) some 2% behind; non-voters are 31% (and rising).

    That means 25% of the people already vote otherwise, **knowing** it’s not a two-party state.

    We can sit here until the cows come home arguing about why NOT to vote for this party or that party, and how *all* of them have no experience of leading the country (even Labour cannot claim that for 5 General Elections), or might create a pact with this or that “enemy”… but those thoughts too are pandering to the notion of a two-party state.

    Unless WE seek to change things, things will remain the same, the *status quo* of our nation’s steady evisceration will continue.

    *The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result*

    Nobody cares *who* you vote for, join the 31% if that’s easier, just DO NOT vote Conservative or Labour if you normally do, particularly if doing so to “make sure the other lot don’t get in”.

    If WE don’t change things now, we might never have the chance again … or not peacefully, anyway.

    Painful reminder : A spoiled vote says absolutely nothing. Their numbers are quietly added to the winner’s tally post-count.

Leave a Reply