Please help! UK democracy is broken. PR voting can fix it. Sign the petition.

[Erzan]

You are being ruled by a tyranny of the minority.

Hi,

Today the British people are going be governed by a party that secured 36% of the vote but thanks to our FPTP voting system grab 51% of the seats. All the policies and laws that will be imposed on you by the UK government will be because 36% gave their consent. What about the 64% that did not give their consent? If you heard that Putin imposed laws on the Russian people against the majority we would cry foul. If we heard the Obama imposed laws on the American people despite losing a referendum we would cry foul. But when the UK government impose laws despite having not winning 64% of the vote we do what? We cannot go on like this.

It is time we stopped this madness, time we realise that it is not 1900s any more and that the needs of this country far outweigh the benefits FPTP gives any one party. Our concept of democracy has always evolved in response to the times. Where once we thought it was democratic to deny black people the right to vote, where we once we thought it right to deny women the right to vote and even the working class (without property) too. We don't thankfully any more. Black, female and working class. A description that fits my grandmother and I guess helps to partly explain why the issue of representation and democracy makes me so passionate. She has always reminded me of the ridicule her mother got for calling for better representation, whenever I bored her about my desire for a better more proportional voting system.

Is British democracy as bad as it was before 1928? of course not. But can it improve? damn right it can. My great grandmother was a black working class female. A Labour supporter (supposedly) who died too early and never got the chance to have her voice fairly represented. Perhaps it's time we gave the millions of under represented voters in the United Kingdom a stronger voice?

Let the 2020 election be the first British election that never wastes a vote again.

Please support this petition for a fairer and more proportional voting system. Together we can force the agenda on electoral reform.

www.change.org/p/david-cameron-reform-our-voting-system-to-make-it-fair-and-representative-makeseatsmatchvotes?source_location=trending_petitions_home_page&algorithm=curated_trending
170,000 supporters supporters and counting.

Thank you

Yes I know we had a AV referendum but that was on a low turn out, AV wasn't really wanted by PR enthusiasts and now millions more have had their vote wasted they may realise what needs to be done.

This is really starting to piss me off.

Labour won a landslide in 2005 on 35% of the vote. The Conservatives win a narrow majority on 37% (not 36% for fuck's sake, if you are going to make these posts at least ATTEMPT to be honest, it's 36.9% which rounds to 37% not 36% on any planet) and suddenly it's undemocratic, Tories Out, scumbags rioting in London, etc.

Seems like it's only a problem when you don't get the result you like.

Just a few facts:

• The Conservatives actually got more than 40% of the vote in England - Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own parties and their own Parliaments
• UKIP got 15% of the vote in England, the Conservatives have pledged an in-out EU referendum, which is UKIP's raison d'etre. Together with the Conservatives, that's a big mandate for a right-of-centre government (55%)
• The Greens only got 3.8% of the vote - that's a very small proportion of the electorate, and less, for example, than the BNP got in the 2004 and 2009 elections, and many PR systems are deliberately designed to exclude extreme fringe parties in this manner.
• Further to the above please don't imagine that PR would deliver puppies and kittens cuddly left-wing/ecologist parties - extremist parties across Europe are now significant forces. The fascist National Front have topped the polls in France, the Freedom Party gained several dozen seats in Holland, the Swiss People's Party (of 'sheep kicking out foreigners' fame) is the largest party in Switzerland, the Austrian Freedom Party have 22% of the seats in their Parliament and so on.
• We had a referendum on this only 4 years ago. It was rejected by 68% of the country. You don't get to re-run it because you don't like the party that won the election.

Well, perhaps it's time for another one, with more campaigning and better information about what it is and what it means - now that we've got a completely bonkers outcome across the UK I suspect more people will be taking notice.

Otoh - the 2 parties that have benefited massively from it won't be in a hurry to change anything.

And yes, of course this would have resulted in even more UKIP votes. Conservatives/UKIP got 50% as it was.

Result would have been an alliance of Tory right and UKIP putting through many more right-wing policies than the soft-right Conservatives would possibly do.

I would love to know how many of the people calling for electoral reform now even bothered to get off their arses and vote in 2011.

And also what jobless said.

You don't get to re-run it because you don't like the party that won the election

Apparently you absolutely do get to re-run it. According to Mr Salmond (from one of the 2 parties which came out of this FPTP election very well) it shows that we're closer to independence than ever before - as the SNP continue to rule out another referendum after we voted the 'wrong' way.

signed

You're very good at dodging the question about why you didn't campaign for this under the labour government

I did.

I hate it when people join MN purely to further their own agenda.

Why on earth are people saying that those who want PR 'suddenly' want it just because it favoured the conervatives this time?

I've wanted some form of PR ever since I have been old enough to understand the voting system, regardless of who it favours at the time. How bloody patronising to suggest it is only for self-interest.

Agree Psammead - it's a strange conclusion to jump to, given that those throwing out that accusation know none of the posters complaining about PR in RL.

Yeah, it's really strange. An insight into the way of thinking of those saying it, I suppose.

I made a comment the day after the election about how PR would be a better way, and got called a hypocrite by the very next poster. I don't even live in the UK, let alone vote there. And if I did, Labour would not necessarily be my choice.

It was really odd.

No self-interest here either.
In fact NO interest whatsoever as I cannot vote in this country in spite of having lived here for >20years and paying my taxes like everybody else.
But hey ho, it just strikes me as very undemocratic, this FPTP nonsense.

Many countries with PR have a system in which a party needs to attract at least, say, 5% of the vote in order to gain access to parliament. It keeps the nutters out and avoids too many splinter parties forming. Seems to work well in Germany (which of course learnt a very had lesson in 1933 when a certain Mr Hitler was elected perfectly democratically).

Agree Pacific. Your home country's whole political system makes perfect sense to me.

BTW - if you don't mind me asking, why are you not allowed to vote?

I am a bloody forriner, aren't I?

Have you not come over from the dark side - do you still have forriner nationality?

Evidently not, otherwise she would be allowed to vote... Her choice.

Nope, still on the dark side - it's a whole other thread but IMO and IME 'nationality' is as much an emotional state as a question of passport.
I don't think there's anything wrong with being British , I just happen not to be.

So I keep voting in Germany although I have very little clue what goes on there politically. And get het up about threads about politics here….

I'm not questionning 'her choice' - I just wasn't sure how it all works.

I totally agree - nationality is a very emotional thing. I think you're very sensible to keep voting in Germany after the latest shennanigans over here

Wasn't there a UK wide referendum in 2011......?

No - that was for a watered down version - AV - LibDems wanted PR but Tories wouldn't so opted for AV instead.

I think it's time for PR now!

Pacific I'm a forriner too, on a visa and l still get to vote. Are you sure you cant?

Almost 200,000 signatures - www.change.org/p/david-cameron-reform-our-voting-system-to-make-it-fair-and-representative-makeseatsmatchvotes?source_location=trending_petitions_home_page&algorithm=curated_trending

Dinky, I am sure I cannot vote in GEs - I can in local and EU elections
Are you from a commonwealth country? That might be different?

I blame Nick Clegg. He SHOULD have stuck to his guns and demanded a vote on PR when he had the chance- not agreed to the confusing AV thing that even the LIbDems didn't really want. This is why I didn't vote for LIbDems this time- because they let us down on this issue (tuition fees is a much smaller issue).

I voted for AV as that was the only choice we were given and the only choice we are likely to be given for a very very long time. A change from AV to PR would have been easy. A vote no to AV ensured that PR is off the table for many decades.

All those signing a petition for PR now are too late- you should have voted yes when we were given the chance four years ago.

With the Greens, UKIP, Liberal Democrats and SNP demanding PR it should easily get back on the agenda. A lot of UKIP voters will be realising the injustice of the FPTP system.