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At present the BBC poll of polls published today shows Conservatives at 33%, Labour at 28%, Liberal Democrats at 30% and Others at 9%. If you then look at the results this would produce based on the BBC's forecasts we get Conservatives 245 seats, Labour 276 seats, Liberal Democrats 100 seats and Others 29 seats. This shows beyond question that because od the way constituences are set up, that Labour although in third place get the most votes. Conservatives are at a disadvantage and Liberal Democrats are at a massive disadvantage.

So the results of the election will bear no resemblance to the votes cast. This cannot be democratic and the Liberal Democrats are right to be campaigning for proportional representation.

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I have long been a supporter of PR.
Some politicians are scared of it, though. I think it is easy to guess who they are and why.
They hate the idea of losing power, and they seem unable to contemplate concensus politics. Their arguments against PR usually fail to acknowledge increased fairness and increased representation.
I hope one day we will have some form of Proportional Representation.
brisket
I'm sorry to say that the press are incorrect in the interpretation of the poll.
People vote within constituencies and not nationally. Because of a complex set of mechanisms and demography thats how it comes out. First past the post! The only reason that the pisspoor parties are interested in PR is because they stand a better chance of a seat.
Garage Joe
Reference:
I'm sorry to say that the press are incorrect in the interpretation of the poll. People vote within constituencies and not nationally. Because of a complex set of mechanisms and demography thats how it comes out. First past the post!
As I choose not to read newspapers, I can't say how the press are responding to the polls. My opening post was taken from the BBC's election pages. The BBC has the details of every single result by constituency from the last election on its database. Therefore I have to assume that the figures I included are an accurate assessment as to what would happen this time around. I have to assume that the polls percentages which are from around the country apply evenly, so that for instance if a party showed an average 5% drop in its share, that would decrease the number of votes cast for that party in each constituency also by 5%. This is reasonable, but of course there will be variations in reality, particularly in marginal seats.

However, my key point in that both the Conservatives and to a greater extent the Liberal Democrats seem to be at an unfair disadvantage compared to Labour. There seems to be a serious problem with the way in how the constituency boundaries are set up if the Liberal Democrats get 30% of the vote but only 100 seats, compared to Labour with 28% and 276 seats.
El Loro
Well put it this way...........
My constituency MP has an excellent record with her constituents. She sits on an important national security committee, and has kept her nose clean throughout. Imagine that we re-elect her.
However, because more people in the (Fred) West country have voted Lib Dem they decide to replace her with a pisspoor MP. Is that what you want? Or do you intend to have even more MPs with no particular seat?
Garage Joe
Reference:GJ
However, because more people in the (Fred) West country have voted Lib Dem they decide to replace her with a pisspoor MP. Is that what you want? Or do you intend to have even more MPs with no particular seat?
GJ, I'm glad you have got a good MP. No, I don't want to see good MPs being debarred from being elected because of quota numbers. I thought the idea under PR was that the elected candidates being debarred were based on those with the lowest majority.So that a good MP should be secure because they would be likely to have bigger majorities.

There are weaknesses with all voting systems including PR. Yes, there is a risk that the elected MP will be further away from your town than under the present system. But MPs are based at Westminster much of the time, and we have access to our MPs via the internet. Under the present system there can be similar situations. I live in a town with its own MP. Howver, because of ward boundary changes, my MP is now based in a different town which I have no connection with.

Sorry I didn't get back to you earlier but I've been out.
El Loro

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