Quote:
Originally Posted by Xaccers
The Liberals have formed governments too, and they can again if they work harder. FPTP does not prevent that.
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In theory, no, it does not.
In practice, however, it does. The problem with FPTP is there are a lot of areas that are staunch labour or tory strongholds. As such, people living in those areas who wish to vote for other parties (such as myself) often get the feeling their vote doesn't count.
Another reason with FPTP doesn't work is that it allows sparsely populated areas (such as rural constituencies) to have the same influence as densely populated areas. How is this fair? It means a small village with 100 residents can have the same influence on the election as a large London Borough (which might have 200,000 residents).
The problem the Liberals have is not so much attracting voters (they actually attract as many voters as Labour), more that the voters they attract tend to be more spread out.