Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
I would argue with the suggestion that the parties are worlds apart, I think they can be quite similar, in this country their doesn't seem to massive gulfs in ideology.
However, if it were the case that the parties are worlds apart, that is because of the current political system which requires hostility between the parties as it's winner takes all in the electoral system. If we had collation governments they would have to compromise and moderate themselves in order to work together.
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It works both ways. In a two party system parties will tend to move to the center to get votes off each other. Under PR the extremes tend to get more representation. You also get more parties in parliament. Then again, the parties that actually get into government will tend to cooperate, leading to a consensus model.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Angua
Under FPTP Labour need the smallest percentage of votes to get a majority, so why are the Tories so anti when it would probably favour them more (based on Euro MP's who are elected by PR).
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I don't think it would. Yes, the current system favours Labour most, but it also favours the Tories over the Lib Dems. PR would bring the Lib Dems in at the cost of Labour, but it would result in two parties on the left flank that would outnumber the Tories. Labour and Lib Dems combined got ~53% of the popular vote. The Tories ~35%. The current result would have been a nightmare for the Tories under PR.