We are committed to a referendum on the voting system for the House of Commons. An independent commission on voting systems will appointed early to recommend a proportional alternative to the first-past-the-post system.
The Labour government set up the promised commission, chaired by Lord Jenkins, this reported in 1998. The Jenkins report proposed a new Alternative Vote Plus system, that sort to balance the criteria of stable government, constituency link, voter choice and broad proportionality. The fact that this system required a wholesale boundary review was used was used as an excuse for the delay in holding the promised referendum. The real reason being Labour’s massive majority, and the reluctance of most MPs to reform a system from which they benefited.
I definitely agree with the Jenkins Comission. AV+ will be a great success in UK and it will attract a high % of voters. There won’t be any wasted votes, nor for electing a district MP nor for the county MP. I really like this system because I think that the FPTP system is killing us. I bet you if it works well in the UK, it will work in the US, Canada and other countries who want more fairness and diversity. AV+ is easy to understand, attractive and favors a more proportional result than the current system.
(Edit: The US aready used ‘runoff’ voting for some elections, depending upon area. If memory serves some of the FPTP issues in the bigger US elections arise from the fact that it is a collection of supposedly independent states, and each wants to maintain an identity. E.g. In the electoral college it isn’t in the interest of the state to unilaterally move to a proportional system. The reason for this is that only one or two electoral votes becomes important, so California (for example) will then be as important electorally as Kansas – Murk)
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I definitely agree with the Jenkins Comission. AV+ will be a great success in UK and it will attract a high % of voters. There won’t be any wasted votes, nor for electing a district MP nor for the county MP. I really like this system because I think that the FPTP system is killing us. I bet you if it works well in the UK, it will work in the US, Canada and other countries who want more fairness and diversity. AV+ is easy to understand, attractive and favors a more proportional result than the current system.
(Edit: The US aready used ‘runoff’ voting for some elections, depending upon area. If memory serves some of the FPTP issues in the bigger US elections arise from the fact that it is a collection of supposedly independent states, and each wants to maintain an identity. E.g. In the electoral college it isn’t in the interest of the state to unilaterally move to a proportional system. The reason for this is that only one or two electoral votes becomes important, so California (for example) will then be as important electorally as Kansas – Murk)