If we had Proportional Representation

[andrewducker]

I'd have expected the Labour party to splinter around the time of the Iraq war.

I'd expect the Tory party to splinter the moment someone said "Europe".

We have broad parties full of people that don't like the views of many of the people they're associated with.  Once it becomes possible to elect smaller parties I expect many of them to head for the hills.

Working out how many votes "The Conservatives" or "Labour" will get at in a proportional system is not likely to get you a very useful result.

(Been meaning to write this for a few days, and finally spurred to it when someone else posted about it, sadly flocked.)

Edit: fjm has unlocked their post. Worth reading - she's a better writer than me.

Comments

[usmu.livejournal.com]

To be entirely specific about the Dutch voting system:

You cast your vote for a particular person of a particular party. Everybody eligible gets to choose from the same people. Every party enters a list of candidates running for election.

Te number of total cast votes / number of seats determines the number of votes needed for to win a seat. This is called the threshold.

The number of votes cast for a party / the threshold, rounded down, is the number of seats won by a party. If any seats remain, they are allocated to the parties with the highest remainders.

The won seats per party are allocated to the top of the voting list. If you won 5 seats, the numbers one through five on the list are elected.

If a person gets votes equal or over the threshold he automatically wins a seat. He will take the place of the last person to be elected on general votes. If number 6 gets enough votes and the party has enough votes to take five seats, the numbers 1 through 4 and number 6 will be elected.