Representative of the proportion of all of the vote. No obviously not. Representative of the wishes of 660 or so sets of local people ? Yes, absolutely.
I think you're right. Farage will run a mile from anything that looks like work or accountability. He is a thin-skinned perpetual victim. I am hoping that the scrutiny he is getting, although far from as robust as it should be, is showing what a drama queen he is.
If we had PR, and there were 7 candidates in a seat where the sitting MP is a tory, I would not have an effing clue how to vote to stand the greatest chance of not having a Tory MP. Instead, with FPTP, I can look up who is in second place (there are websites) and vote accordingly. As it happens, this is Labour in my constituency. So I am cock-a-hoop. Alas it is likely the tory will win, whether it is by FPTP, PR or interpretative dance.
But the parliamentary conservative party booted Truss out even more ruthlessly than the booted Johnson out.
Alternative vote or Supplementary Vote would allow you to vote for your independent candidate, but also for another if your first choice is not popular enough in the rest of the constituency.
Indeed. It will be interesting to see whether they stick with Sunak (who has a 5 year plan, apparently) or will pressure him to stand down. Even though Sunak isn't himself a raving lunatic, he failed to ditch the madcap Rwanda nonsense when he had a chance, and may therefore be weak. And the Tories hate a loser. It may take them a couple of goes (and byelection defeats) before they find someone sensible though. It will probably be someone none of us have heard of. I certainly hop so. Having a sensible Tory party would be very pleasing.
You've got to love a debate though, after all, we use to be able to do that ....I do apologize for getting aeriated. Maybe if we had time we might be able to reach some sort of agreement. I certainly don't subscribe to the Thatcher strategy of depriving the enemy (Sinn Fein) of 'the oxygen of publicity'. Farage is free to gob off as much as he likes (as long as he stays within the limits of the law). Ironically were he to become an MP he could use parliamentary privilege to defame and lie to the nation.
I agree that fascism won't just disappear. And what goes around comes around. But there is no evidence that forcing something underground inevitably makes it bigger. For example, there is a lot of chat about fox hunting still happening despite the ban. 'Forced underground'. This is correct but the number of foxes killed by hunts has fallen hugely. Most of the 400,000 foxes that are killed each year (to keep the population stable) used to be killed by hunts. The league for cruelty against animals reports currently maybe 600 illegal hunt events a year. Sounds terrible but if each event kills 3 foxes, that's 1,800. There would need to be more than 200 times as much illegal foxhunting for 'forcing it underground' to have made foxhunting worse. It has clearly not made it bigger.
I would also add that the 'web of hate we are unaware of' isn't such a bad thing if none of us are made aware of it. In any case, we would be very aware of it, as we already are, via the secret service. Fascism spreads via normalization, not by its suppression.
In any case our discussion was not about how to deal with fascism. It was about what the consequences would be of a 'fair' electoral system that gave Farage 70 seats. You still think Farage with 70 seats is preferable to underground fascism (or the overground fascism we have now, which is more likely if the status quo remains) and a price worth paying if we get 40 Liberals and 30 greens? OK. I don't. Let's leave it there.
I would imagine that we have a common view on 85% of issues. It's a bit sad that it is possible to disagree so fundamentally over the other 15%. Humans, eh?
Sunak's a busted flush, they'll go for a candidate from a council estate, who has "made good".
That’s what we’ve already rejected in a referendum though, right?
f*** PR, I understand and agree to an extent with your issues with PR. Its the love for FPTP I dont get.
"Interpretative Dance", you may be on to something!
Hope you're right Harry -
He'll be on Dancing on Ice before getting a proper job and working 9-5
If I game my vote like that in a three horse seat, what's to stop the tory gaming it exactly the opposite? I would add that it is hard enough getting the thickies and the infirm to vote now. How would they cope with something more complicated than FPTP? Furthermore, I don't particularly want my vote transferred to the liberals just to keep the tory out. It would depend on who the liberal was. Finally. if the tories and labour all put liberal as their second preference, it would be wrong if the liberal won the seat with fewest first preference votes.
It isn't lying, it's keeping their mouths shut about what they really think and getting elected on a Party Manifesto that is much more centrist than they are. If a party existed that was closer to their view, and had a chance of winning a seat, there would be no need to hide in the Tory or Labour parties and try and shift those parties further left or right.
They smelled blood on Sunak before the election and he has limped through it like an aged impala with a compacted hoof. If they lose, he'll last as long as it takes the contenders to consult their backers and then he'll be gone whether he wants to go or not.
Yeah you've got it wrong, and accept that you don't want to consider an alternative, it just surprises me.
You've spilt so much (electronic) ink on PR but, it seems, that you quite literally don't understand what it is. Ditto with the impact of a flat tax.
1. I don't really care
I think we both know that in practice this doesn't happen so I don't think you can use it as a reason to keep FPTP.
