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Subject: well...


Author:
Dave (UK)
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Date Posted: 21:48:54 12/01/04 Wed
In reply to: Ed Harris (Venezia) 's message, "..." on 21:41:30 12/01/04 Wed

The House of Lords is already composed of political members, Government, oppposition and others.

I am merely suggesting that we reform the method of selection for this political component. The PR device would restrict the numbers that each party can have in the chamber, thus eliminating the current practice of Governments loading up the Lords with members of their own persuasion.

It would also give a voice to other parties that would never be represented by FPTP. Diversity is what we are trying to achieve.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Really?


Author:
Ed Harris (Venezia)
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Date Posted: 22:23:20 12/01/04 Wed

I always thought that the second greatest thing about FPTP is that it totally prevents the loony minority parties from getting anywhere. BNP and the Communists stand no chance in FPTP, but under PR they'd be in Parliament! Like in France, where there are actually Communist and National Front representatives.

Diversity is one thing, but PR allowed NASDAP to get a foot in the door in Germany, and we all know what that led to. Okay, so you could have a minimum cut-off point, say, 10%, but that's arbitrary and not really a lasting solution: mainly because a party which gets 9.9% of the vote has no seats but a party which gets 10% of the vote gets 10% of the seats - as soon as that happens, the system seems ridiculous and you have to start the whole reform process of again.

I'm a great believer in our system. It worked fine until a certain party started to horse around with it, which opened a whole can of worms, largely because if you partially reform something it makes no sense, and so there are immediate calls reform it completely. Mr Blair, having read Machiavelli, knows this well, and cunningly came up with this solution so that it would appear as though public opinion was driving the changes. On the contrary, until he deliberately imposed a crap partial-reform compromise almost everyone was happy with the system apart from a few intellectuals who don't like anything which is 100% rational.

The British constitution was a triumph over logic of the organic. I believe that Aristotle called it catalaxy.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Yes but...


Author:
Dave (UK)
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Date Posted: 22:31:24 12/01/04 Wed

You cannot claim to be a mature true democracy, if you design a political system to prevent views being aired that you find distasteful.

Mature democracies can stomach these parties, just as mature democracies don't tend to have them in the first place.

It is this Government and its ppolicies that have created the surge of the BNP

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Fair point. I stand corrected.


Author:
Ed Harris (Venezia)
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Date Posted: 22:33:43 12/01/04 Wed


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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: I prefer preferential voting


Author:
Ian (Australia)
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Date Posted: 03:45:09 12/02/04 Thu

FPTP means a candidate can be elected with just thirty-odd percent of the vote. With preferential voting, a candidate must get over 50%. You don't get the situation of, say, two similar candidates getting 30% each and a very different candidate getting 32% and beating the two of them. The preferences of the voters are better accomodated.

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