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Post by yorkshireman on Apr 22, 2017 22:30:10 GMT
I now think if we had 2 or 3 "beyond the pale" type MPs they would be shown up for who they really are by the many hundreds of other MPs. Unfortunately that doesn’t work, we currently have John McDonnell, Diane Abbott, Emily Thornberry, Keith Vaz, Naz Shah etc, previously George Galloway, Jeffrey Archer, Neil Hamilton etc all of who should be / should have been beyond the pale.
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Apr 23, 2017 8:51:48 GMT
Unfortunately, it doesn't matter what I vote. The MP here has been from one party for decades if not centuries. For that reason, none of the parties will devote much energy to campaigning here either. How does the majority compare to the number of people who didn't vote last time? A much more fundamental problem, for me, is that it utterly breaks the representative nature of our democracy. Right now, EVERY SINGLE CONSTITUENCY in the country is represented at Westminster by the single most locally popular candidate. There is a direct 1:1 mapping between where you live and who represents you. Start putting PR in place, and you break that link completely.
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IFISAcava
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Post by IFISAcava on Apr 23, 2017 9:00:37 GMT
Unfortunately, it doesn't matter what I vote. The MP here has been from one party for decades if not centuries. For that reason, none of the parties will devote much energy to campaigning here either. How does the majority compare to the number of people who didn't vote last time? A much more fundamental problem, for me, is that it utterly breaks the representative nature of our democracy. Right now, EVERY SINGLE CONSTITUENCY in the country is represented at Westminster by the single most locally popular candidate. There is a direct 1:1 mapping between where you live and who represents you. Start putting PR in place, and you break that link completely. Roy Jenkins' proposed AV plus system maintained the vital constituency link by electing 500 or so by constituency (using AV so that every MP had 50% or more of the local vote) and topping up with 150 MPs to make Parliament representative of the national vote. A simple and much more democratic system.
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Post by captainconfident on Apr 23, 2017 16:22:14 GMT
This idea gets my vote. AV is an ideal, simple compromise which makes each constituency race more representative.
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phil
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Post by phil on Apr 23, 2017 20:13:40 GMT
Unfortunately, it doesn't matter what I vote. The MP here has been from one party for decades if not centuries. For that reason, none of the parties will devote much energy to campaigning here either. How does the majority compare to the number of people who didn't vote last time? A much more fundamental problem, for me, is that it utterly breaks the representative nature of our democracy. Right now, EVERY SINGLE CONSTITUENCY in the country is represented at Westminster by the single most locally popular candidate. There is a direct 1:1 mapping between where you live and who represents you. Start putting PR in place, and you break that link completely. I'm puzzled, you have previously alluded in this thread that it was undemocratic to act on the wishes of 37.5% of the electorate to go ahead with Brexit (colloquially known as remoaning  ), so it's rather puzzling that you think it is democratic to act on the wishes of 37.5% or less of the electorate to return an MP. Moreover, 51.89% of voters favoured Brexit, a clear majority, but in some UK constituencies MPs are returned with as little as 25% support of voters, a clear minority. Clarity for people who may be a little confused: Voters are the people who actually turn out to vote, the electorate are the people with a right to vote but who often prefer to watch telly/have a bath/go to the pub or walk the dog instead.
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Apr 24, 2017 7:37:05 GMT
How does the majority compare to the number of people who didn't vote last time? A much more fundamental problem, for me, is that it utterly breaks the representative nature of our democracy. Right now, EVERY SINGLE CONSTITUENCY in the country is represented at Westminster by the single most locally popular candidate. There is a direct 1:1 mapping between where you live and who represents you. Start putting PR in place, and you break that link completely. I'm puzzled, you have previously alluded in this thread that it was undemocratic to act on the wishes of 37.5% of the electorate to go ahead with Brexit (colloquially known as remoaning ), so it's rather puzzling that you think it is democratic to act on the wishes of 37.5% or less of the electorate to return an MP. Moreover, 51.89% of voters favoured Brexit, a clear majority, but in some UK constituencies MPs are returned with as little as 25% support of voters, a clear minority. There's a rather massive difference between a simple national yes/no as to whether the entire direction of the country should be changed, upending the last four and a half decades of legislation completely, and who the representative for your area's going to be for the next five years.
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stub8535
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personal opinions only. Not qualified to advise on investment products.
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Post by stub8535 on Apr 24, 2017 12:12:51 GMT
I do wonder, given the results in Paris yesterday if we should wait for Le Penn to be elected and then choose another extreme politician to run yet another country. That would make kim, Putin, Assad, trump, le pen and Boris!
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registerme
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Post by registerme on Apr 24, 2017 15:32:10 GMT
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jonah
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Post by jonah on Apr 24, 2017 18:51:38 GMT
Apparently I need to move house as I disagree with most people in my constituency on almost all issues!
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Post by captainconfident on Apr 25, 2017 10:26:27 GMT
Apparently I need to move house as I disagree with most people in my constituency on almost all issues! I'm a Green! Well, I never knew that.
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on Apr 25, 2017 22:01:26 GMT
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rick24
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Post by rick24 on Apr 26, 2017 9:36:04 GMT
Great opportunity to rid the commons of the "REMOANING MAJORITY" of anti Brexit MP's - Let the people's voice be heard again; nothing to fear from democracy!! Some people will regard it as an opportunity to tame the Brexit nutters.
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oldgrumpy
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Post by oldgrumpy on Apr 26, 2017 9:45:08 GMT
Can't put a "like" on that, Adrian, or some might get "the wrong idea"!  UKIP has always had a few weirdos* but she is beyond the pale. * polite version. Don't want to offend our "guardians" and get banned again.
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Post by yorkshireman on Apr 26, 2017 9:57:29 GMT
The Independent is a reasonably objective newspaper, unfortunate that it perceives the need to dumb down to tabloid level in an attempt to attract Millennials and Snowflakes.
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ilmoro
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'Wondering which of the bu***rs to blame, and watching for pigs on the wing.' - Pink Floyd
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Post by ilmoro on Apr 26, 2017 13:09:27 GMT
In case anybody hasnt noticed, one consequence of the GE is that alot of the finance bill has been dumped including the cut to dividend allowance and quarterly HMRC reporting for small business.
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), so it's rather puzzling that you think it is democratic to act on the wishes of 37.5% or less of the electorate to return an MP. 
