Britannist

They don't mean it - the leadership of the europhile Liberal 'Democrats' are privately worried about the possibility of proportional voting coming in (for use in UK General Elections) because they would be pushed into fourth place in the ranking by UKIP if it did (just as they were in votes at the last EU Election).

That's why some of the Liberal Dims are looking at the Alternative Vote system instead - although that voting system might only work in their favour for a limited amount of time.

mrabody

Actually I believe that Italy went to a split system in the late nineties where about 75% of the seats in their parliament are elected by FPTP. This explains why the last few governments have lasted longer than usual. I also understand that the Italian public is generally in favour of making it all FPTP. They are fed up with corrupt politicians and in the latest elections refused to vote en masse for the myriad small parties with the result that there are now only six parties represented in the Italian parliament.

The Bear

It will take direct action from the EU to get British politicians to agree to doing away with the FPTP system.

Yet ANOTHER good thing that Britain will get as a result of its ever closer association with the EU.

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I am an old man. I have eaten much salt.

British-Conservatism

Actually most Italians on the Right in particulat want full PR back.
As the new system cost the Right the last election with an unproportion result.
Recently that was overcame by an alliance of nearly all the Right.

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http://conservativedemocraticalliance.blogspot.com/

Britannist

Yes, I remember that the Italian General Election voting system was made more like ours a few years or so ago. They did the right thing.

Germany elects half of their national (Federal) Parliament using the UK First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) voting system and I believe that the French National Parliament is also elected using an electoral system similar to our FPTP system.

And of course the American Presidential Election system uses FPTP too. Interesting that some of the wealthiest countries in the world (including several leading members of the G7/8 group of industrialised nations) - the USA, Canada, France, Italy Australia, Singapore - use part or all of our FPTP General Election voting system or variations of it.

Britannist

True - the europhile political establishment in our country would only bring in proportional representation (PR) voting for UK General Elections if they could find a PR system which UKIP could not win under.

And if UKIP did start winning seats under PR voting in a General Election the europhiles would very quickly change the system back to First-Past-The-Post (i.e. FPTP - the voting system used now for British General Elections).

In France when small parties started to win seats in the French Parliament under PR the French President at the time (Mitterrand) speedily moved back to a variation of FPTP.

Britannist

I agree - when they were ordered by the EU to bring in proportional voting (PR) for elections to the rival 'Parliament' in Brussels they (the europhile political establishment - Blair/Labour etc.) did not think that UKIP would win a single seat in an EU Election held under PR.

Labour might like to change the system of voting in EU Elections back to First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) but fear a row with the EU and with the Greens if they tried to do so (Labour needs votes from Green Party supporters at General Elections to hold some of their marginal seats).

At this time, the europhile political establishment has accept that UKIP can win seats in EU Elections held under PR - but it will still try to stop a proper PR voting system being used in UK General Elections because it doesn't want more UKIP MPs in the House of Commons as well as in the EU 'Parliament'.

The europhiles know that the reduction in the number of seats the larger nations of the EU have in the EU 'Parliament' (from next year) makes it more difficult for small parties such as UKIP to win seats in Brussels (i.e. less MEP places per EU 'regional' constituency in the UK means UKIP needs a larger share of the vote to win/hold a seat).