A Bit About PR

I have never been much of a fan of PR. For one thing, I would like to see truly local MPs, for another, in the past I had fallen for the “you will never get strong government” line.

However, looking at the opinion polls this weekend, I think, makes it clear that we have to have change.

For example, a YouGov poll today gives support for the parties thus:

Conservative 33%

Liberal Democrats 30%

Labour 28%

Our current system (on a uniform swing) would likely give seats to the parties thus:

Conservative 245 seats (37.6%)

Labour 275 seats (42.3%)

Liberal Democrats 99 seats (15.2%)

Which is just so wrong. If Labour are in the driving seat, we will probably end up having their scam for Single Transferable Votes foisted on us, which will do nothing but perpetuate the bias in their favour, and put off real reform indefinitely, as far as I can see.

There is a good article describing the various options for reform in The Independent today – “Electoral reform: So, just what system would give a fair result?”.