is it fair

[minestrone]

I don't think you could have PR in the UK as I don't think half the voters would be able to work out how to vote.

I also don't think the British electorate would vote in a past member of the communist party or someone who wants to force on European nations political leaders.

"In my lifetime all our problems have come from mainland Europe and all the solutions have come from the English-speaking nations across the world"

[darmstadt]

I also don't think the British electorate would vote in a past member of the communist party or someone who wants to force on European nations political leaders.

"In my lifetime all our problems have come from mainland Europe and all the solutions have come from the English-speaking nations across the world"

Denis Healey and Eric Fuller come to mind as ex members who got voted n by the British electorate, mind you the British electorate would vote in a man in a monkey suit

[Dominic Connor]

Who do you trust ?

Different sorts of PR help different parties...

There's lots of options and fine detail that will get decided by whichever party (ies) is in power, who really thinks these will be chosen solely on the basis of "fairness" ?

A broad brush is that the smaller parties are currently under-represented, but it looks like the SNP will be over-represented. With less than 50% of the Scottish vote they may get 100% of the seats.

Also it looks like the tories vote is more concentrated than Labour, ie it wins bigger which "wastes" votes and has lots of votes in seats it can't possibly win. That's not a constant, but there are lots of details to help and hinder various vested interests.

Multi seat constituencies where there are two or three seats seem to favour the LibDems as do single transferrable votes as people away from the middle have as their second choice something near the middle.

Also the LibDems tend to have MPs with more character than the other parties, a legacy of decades as the third party, and a good local MP who plays well for his constituents would be lost in favour of someone who looks good on TV, which means even within parties there would be winners and losers, which do you trust ?

Every PR system I know of has a lower bound below which you get no MPs the choice of this level could easily be chosen to nobble UKIP, the Greens etc.

[cojak]

For what it is worth nationalists I always found Dominic Connor to be a bit soft in the mind.

Which may lend more weight to him.

[VectraMan]

As you will no doubt recall, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury was a Peer not an MP.

Thanks. At the back of my mind I was wondering if it ever have happened. We've had a few recent ministers who were peers, but could we even have PMQs if the PM wasn't an MP?

The whole thing is a bit silly. The MP is meant to work for the region he represents, yet if your MP is the PM, or other senior minister, clearly they have more important things to do and you're short changed. Maybe we should elect MPs separately from the government, and then have a time set aside in the commons where the PM and other ministers are invited in to answer to the people's representatives about how they're running the country.

The US President isn't a member of either house, and neither does he have any extra responsibility to one region or state. They seem to get on all right.

[darmstadt]

The whole thing is a bit silly. The MP is meant to work for the region he represents, yet if your MP is the PM, or other senior minister, clearly they have more important things to do and you're short changed. Maybe we should elect MPs separately from the government, and then have a time set aside in the commons where the PM and other ministers are invited in to answer to the people's representatives about how they're running the country.

How does that explain Farage standing for Thanet? In fact it would be interesting to see how many people standing for Parliament actually live in their constituencies

[darmstadt]

How does that explain Farage standing for Thanet? In fact it would be interesting to see how many people standing for Parliament actually live in their constituencies

Actually i don't think he really wants to represent them, he just wants to get into Parliament for whatever reason and through whatever means: Ukip leader Nigel Farage has attended fewer hustings than Al-Zebabist Nation of Oog candidate - Election 2015 - Kent News

[minestrone]

I don't think Sturgeon has ever won a regional election, she is just on SNP's regional list.

Even we don't want her.

[TestMangler]

I don't think Sturgeon has ever won a regional election, she is just on SNP's regional list.

Even we don't want her.

I thought she was constituency MSP for Govan, rather than list, like, for example, all the Tory MSPs.

edit - The tories actually have three constituency MSPs out of their 15.

[minestrone]

I thought she was constituency MSP for Govan, rather than list, like, for example, all the Tory MSPs.

Seems she won one on 2011, Glasgow Southside as it is now called.

That total cocksocket David Meikle was running as a conservative. I would vote green party rather than give him a vote.