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[Varche]

Firstly let me say this isn't a political thread but a technical one. 

Gordon Brown has said he wants to propose a change to the voting system in the UK. Currently you get one vote and put your mark against a candidate you fancy. The proposal is to rank (all) the candidates on the ballot paper with your favourite first and least favourite last!

Personally I can't see that changing much at all. Plus a staggering amount of people manage to "spoil" their ballot paper when asked to only make ONE mark.

Personally I have always thought that the system proposed years ago (by the Liberals I think) of proportional representation to be the best system. I can't see either Labour or the Conservatives bringing that in as it would presumably waken their power base. Do any other major (civilised) countries have prop rep?

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Firstly let me say this isn't a political thread but a technical one. 

Gordon Brown has said he wants to propose a change to the voting system in the UK. Currently you get one vote and put your mark against a candidate you fancy. The proposal is to rank (all) the candidates on the ballot paper with your favourite first and least favourite last!

Personally I can't see that changing much at all. Plus a staggering amount of people manage to "spoil" their ballot paper when asked to only make ONE mark.

Personally I have always thought that the system proposed years ago (by the Liberals I think) of proportional representation to be the best system. I can't see either Labour or the Conservatives bringing that in as it would presumably waken their power base. Do any other major (civilised) countries have prop rep?

......sounds good in isolation......but leads to weak divided government.... :-/ :-/

[Dishevelled Den]

To an extent it's operated in Northern Ireland although political landscape there bastardises the original concept somewhat.**

Properly applied I still remain sceptical about its benefit as the resulting administration has to depend on a talking shop where deals are cobbled together and all too much time is wasted in trying to marry one's fundamental ideas with those of others.

I think PR simply results in obfuscated decision making and legislation that's the result of too many cooks wanting to influence the final dish.


**
  1  No true majority rule.

  2  The de Hont system has been used in UK Euro elections since 1999.  Within the Northern Ireland Assembly its use meant that ministers had to be approved by a majority of Assembly members from within each of the Nationalist and Unionist party blocs as well as a majority across them.

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

I'm available ......for the position of "Lord Protector"..

[jereboam]

I'm not a great enthusiast for PR.  When I lived in the Netherlands, they ended up without any sort of government for 7 months.  Can't say I actually noticed much difference, though.

And every time the Israelis have an election, they end up haggling for months and nothing much happens.

One of the problems is that the lunatic fringe crawl out from under their stones and cloud the issues.  I really don't give a monkey's about what Veg Lib (or whatever) want to do about Iraq (or whatever) because they are a single issue grouping and there's more to governing a country than that.

 

Oh, and I forgot to say that if Gordon's behind it, it'll be a disaster because he doesn't know what anybody wants and doesn't know how to present what he wants to do.  And in two years time, he'll be proclaiming it as a great success as he stands among the ruins.

[cmeonthemove]

......sounds good in isolation......but leads to weak divided government.... :-/ :-/

So in that sense it will make not a blind bit of difference. Given that any planned referendum would take place after the next election this is irrelevant as GB will be out of power anyway.

[Nickbat]

I like Dan Hannan's critique of Brown's idea:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100024759/whats-wrong-with-gordon-browns-alternative-vote-system/
 

[Dishevelled Den]

I like Dan Hannan's critique of Brown's idea:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100024759/whats-wrong-with-gordon-browns-alternative-vote-system/
 

He's not far off the mark there.

[albitz]

Some of you may remember a post of mine from about the middle of last year when I mentioned that a friend of mine told me he had lunch with the political editor of a National paper and had been told in all sincerity that "gay Gordon" was the worst kept secret in the Westminster village.
He also told me at the time that the editor told him that Gordon was planning electoral reform and the reason was that he was at least partially unhinged and thought he could actually keep himself in office for many years by doing so.
He realised that he might not be able to do it before an election, but if he couldnt he would announce it beforehand and if he did lose the election would fight tooth and claw to continue as party leader until the next election and then win under the new system and then stay in office for pretty much as long as he wanted to.
I thought it sounded ludicrous at the time, and I havent really heard the details of what is being proposed, but when I heard the news headlines tonight I immediately recalled the conversation from at least 6 months ago with a slight sense of alarm. :-/

[Nickbat]

Some of you may remember a post of mine from about the middle of last year when I mentioned that a friend of mine told me he had lunch with the political editor of a National paper and had been told in all sincerity that "gay Gordon" was the worst kept secret in the Westminster village.
He also told me at the time that the editor told him that Gordon was planning electoral reform and the reason was that he was at least partially unhinged and thought he could actually keep himself in office for many years by doing so.
He realised that he might not be able to do it before an election, but if he couldnt he would announce it beforehand and if he did lose the election would fight tooth and claw to continue as party leader until the next election and then win under the new system and then stay in office for pretty much as long as he wanted to.
I thought it sounded ludicrous at the time, and I havent really heard the details of what is being proposed, but when I heard the news headlines tonight I immediately recalled the conversation from at least 6 months ago with a slight sense of alarm. :-/

Funny you should say that, Albs. Nudge, nudge.