Lib dem protesters outside nick cleggs meeting

[compo]

In Westminster
quite rowdy now on news24

Ooh this is exciting! Judging from the cheers I'd say there's more Lib Dem than Labour voteres there...

Shhhh everyone ...

he looks quite smug. Why? he lost badly at the election.

Ah, he's going to push for it but can he do it? I'll be amazed if he can.

PR is in Nick Clegg's interests....

They are mostly LD supports.

Liberal Youth has mobilised MASSIVELY. Their grass roots approach is paying off.

He's a great speaker isn't he!!

FPTP is highly democratic, it keeps out the fascists and it maintains a direct link between politicians and the people, and it allows local voters to turf out disliked MPs (Portillo and Lamont in 1997 for example). PR systems give jobs for life to well-connected politicians.

FPTP also (usually) delivers a united government with the ability to implement a coherent agenda, something the Lib Dems are determined to undermine.

Kay Burley makes me vomit!

pr would also be in Nick Griffin's interests. Is that what people want? for the bnp and the like to also have a say? Because that's what pr would mean...

Am not at all surprised that it's come to this. But lib/lab coalition is not an option, therefore it's going to have to be a minority government and then another election possibly as soon as October.

Switch to the BBC, not a Kay in sight

the media are playing it up big time. A tiny protest (compared with Iraq war, Countryside Alliance, etc.) is being portrayed as some sort of mass movement.

I'm surprised they were allowed to do it tbh - thought Labour had banned protest in London. I guess they were outside the exclusion zone.

oh yes, I don't do sky.

Billy Bragg has been banging on about electoral reform FOREVER - he is certainly NOT jumping on any bandwagon. The fact is that now is the best chance of achieving change. Lets face it - not enough people want a Tory Govt - if they did then the result would have reflected that. As it is there will have to be compromise if DC wants a shot at being PM.

As for PR - how can a party which gets 25% (virtually) of the vote beworth only 57 seats when Lab/Tory on 30/36 (whatever) have well over 200 and 300 seats respectively.

I know that - what makes my blood boil is that no member of the Labour party saw the 1997,2001 or 2005 election results as unfair even though they patently were. And for Will Straw as a mouthpiece for the Labour party to talk of 52% of the electorate having voted lib/lab - what a stupid point to make - every election since the war has been won by a party with no more than 40 or at most 45% of the vote and SUDDENLY it is unfair? Get real to quote their soon to be ousted leader.

What's "enough" people? 35% of the country voted Labour in 2005 - be consistent and have some principles.

I agree that something needs to change.

But my issue with PR is the negatives that it brings with it i.e. that the likes of the bnp will be represented in parliament based on the numbers of votes they obtain, and that can never be seen as a good thing.

It's a tiny protest - there are only a measly 1000 people or so there.

It is getting media coverage beyond all sense of proportion.

Labour got the same share of the vote in 2005 that the Tories have got this time - so was the 2005 election result illegitimate?