Real proportional representation

[xoggoth]

Proportional representation is back in the news again:

Election 2015: How parties would reform Parliament - BBC News

If we had a genuinely proportional system, not that flawed transferable vote system the Lib Dems tried to bring in, it would be great. Of course that might mean that some marginal constituencies may not get the MP that had a local majority but that seems less important if that majority is marginal anyway.

Another flaw is that we have 650 MPs and 42 million voters so number of MPs in the one MP per seat system could not exactly represent the vote. My solution to that is to have a separate popularity vote. The least popular MPs in each party would undergo surgery and the parts would be sown together in correct proportions to make a single genuinely representative MP. Maybe if you took bits of Ken Clarke, Vince Cable and Ed Balls you might even be able to come up with an MP who wasn't a total *rse.

[VectraMan]

As no-one votes for their local MP anyway, what we should do is do away with constituencies and just allocate the number of MPs according to the number of votes they get and leave it up to the parties to decide how they're organised. So if the Greens get one MP that one MP has to cover the whole country, but the bigger parties can organise themselves in groups of regional MPs. Your MP is meant to represent you and your area, but if you didn't vote for him you're not likely to want to ask him for help. If you have several MPs from different parties covering your area you can go to the one you most believe in.

Problem solved.

[SpontaneousOrder]

Independant city-states.

[SueEllen]

As no-one votes for their local MP anyway, what we should do is do away with constituencies and just allocate the number of MPs according to the number of votes they get and leave it up to the parties to decide how they're organised. So if the Greens get one MP that one MP has to cover the whole country, but the bigger parties can organise themselves in groups of regional MPs. Your MP is meant to represent you and your area, but if you didn't vote for him you're not likely to want to ask him for help. If you have several MPs from different parties covering your area you can go to the one you most believe in.

Problem solved.

You are wrong on all accounts.

While there are regions in the country where people will vote for a donkey as long as it's wearing the right rosette not everywhere does.

The reason why many Lib dims get elected is because of their personal popularity. The fact that lots of the popular ones are standing down means their seats will go to Labour or the Tories. Likewise they calculate that one of UKIP prospective parliamentary candidates who was the last MP will lose his seat but the other won't because the latter has more personal popularity in his constituency.

Also regardless of whether you voted for your last sitting MP part of their job is to represent you in matters where being an MP holds weight such as NHS complaints, complaints against the police and immigration. It doesn't matter what party you are an MP for, as if you screw up on these things and it gets in the media you can lose even the people who voted you in and can get deselected by the local party.