Just had this from the lobby: "The statement by the Deputy Prime Minister this afternoon (1530) on Electoral Reform will also cover plans to equalise the size of constituencies, and bring the number down from the current 650."
Will Cornwall lose one of its MPs? Share a constituency, or two, with Devon? I hope we'll be able to shed some light on the implications later today, and on 大象传媒 Radio Cornwall tomorrow morning.
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Comment number 1.
At 5th Jul 2010, BluesBerry wrote:I support electoral reform, but I would vnot support Clegg鈥檚 version.
Why?
Under AV, candidates are still elected (as they are now) from single-member constituencies.
Instead of putting an 鈥渪鈥 next to one candidate鈥檚 name, voters rank candidates in order of preference. If none gets a majority of first preference votes, the candidate who comes last is eliminated.
The second preference votes on the loser-ballots are then given to other candidates. This continues until one candidate has more than 50% of votes and is declared the winner.
I prefer and hope to get (at some point in Canada, my country) Proportional Representation.
What this means is that should one party get 56% of the votes, it would then get 56% of the seats, etc.
AV is too similar to first-past-the-post (FPTP) for my liking..
PR (proportional representation) reflects a party鈥檚 exact share of the votes. Also, because each party must submit a potential list of candidates to be appointed, it tends to promote females and minority groups because IF you want the majority share of a certain constituency, you must pay attention to the make-up of that constituency and ensure that the candidate is "appealing".
David Cameron, the current Leader of the Coalition Government, declared on May 26, 2009 that his party did not support the AV system, or any form of proportional representation as it would create "weak governments". Ah...does Mr. Cameron feel that he has an extremely powerful government now?
If you鈥檙e going to have a referendum, if the referendum is truly to reflect the peoples鈥 preference, why not go all the way, and ask the people what they prefer:
1. Leave the voting system alone.
2. AV
3. PR
Current voting system:
Conservative 307 seats
Labour 258 seats
LibDem 57
If the recent election has been The Alternative Vote (AV) System:
Conservative Party would have won 281 seats.
The Labour Party 262 seats.
The Liberal Democrats Party 79 seats.
If the recent election has been proportional representation:
Conservatives 36.1% = 235 seats
Labour 29.0% = 189 seats
LibDem 23.0% = 150 seats
So, there you go; something to ponder.
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