Which is more important now: political reform or the economy?

[FrakkinTheReturningOfficer]

Political reform is going to be bad for the economy, in the short term at least.

Sorting out the economy probably means putting political reform on hold.

Which would you choose?

Enjoy .

Not a false dichotomy completely. Political reform and the economy are bargaining chops in a hugh stakes game. I am worried that we'll get a govt who can't deal with both. Both require policy that needs to go through parliament, a very well hung parliament , and that policy needs to pass!

I can't afford to play with currency sadly, I'm just worried because we're heavy on sterling investments but living in the eurozone

Will we have a goverment who can deal with either?!
I agree with PW

cons & lib votes would be sufficient to get most things through parliament....there just needs to be a deal.

i hope the LD's don't stuff this up, otherwise it leaves the country in an awkward position to say the least... also, i hop ethe conservatives are open to reasonable offers (they seem to be, but you never know...)

edgar, the big problem is that the cons will not countenance a deal that involves a serious stab at electoral reform...it will cost them too much in seats and they, like all political parties have a huge interest in maintaining their own power base.

luckily for us, at the moment the national interest and the libdems interests co-incide in terms of electoral reform (am i being too cynical here?) and therefore the libdems are our biggest hope of having someone that will drive this through.

I honestly feel that without electoral reform at the heart, any deal made will be crap: as i think mark steel twittered the other day 'Cameron's just said to Clegg "We'll do all the things we were going to do anyway, and if you like we'll let you watch. Is that a deal?"'

twill be shit if libdems don't get referendum on PR.

edgar, the big problem is that the cons will not countenance a deal that involves a serious stab at electoral reform...it will cost them too much in seats and they, like all political parties have a huge interest in maintaining their own power base

actually in the 2005 election, the conservatives would have done vastly better with PR...they object to it because it is against conservativism (ie, leaving stuff the same) - many conservatives came on before the election to point this out. It would be within Conservative principles to allow a referendum on the subject however, or possibly, an open vote in the Commons if someone could work out a bill for it (which would be cheaper).

I think that's right, EAPoll. The Tories fear that PR would mean they could never win an election again because the LibDems and Labour are so similar that they'd always tick one another's candidates as second option.

The only way that the Tories could counter this would be to start ticking UKIP's box as a second choice.

So one unforeseen consequence would be that more hard-line parties benefiting from PR. Because some Tories would feel they had no choice if they wanted to ensure that right-of-centre views were listened to.

All kinds of minorities would be taken more seriously under PR: for the good and for the bad. That's a big, big consideration. Do we want them in parliament?

Chelsea

FTSE up 4pc with no government...

the LibDems and Labour are so similar that they'd always tick one another's candidates as second option.

erm but that's simply not true..

liberal and labour aren't similar at all - if anything there is more similarity between conservative and labour than either party has with the LDs...

although i think LD would make a popular 2nd choice for many voters...

in the South seats generally change hands betweeen LD and conservative with labour a shoddy third ...... so a single transferrable vote system would just re-enforce that.

anyway, you'r talking about STV, not PR!

? but STV is PR, albeit not the only kind.

And STV would allow Labour in in those seats, if they got a large enough share of the vote (because Labour supporters stopped voting tactically).

but STV is PR, albeit not the only kind

PR could just as easily marking the single box as we do now (but have out votes counted differently, towards total national proportions)

STV could still be done on a consituency basis, but we'd be numbering candidates rather than marking just one.

i think this is part of the problem the LDs would have to work out what exactly they wanted and then try and persuade MPs/ the population that they wanted it too..

reading the wiki page on voting systems, you quickly realise there is a veritable smorgasbord of choice when it comes to systems, all with slightly difeent benefots.

didn't a system similar to STV get used in Scotland with great confusion on the first ballot?

and what you say about conservatives could equally be placed against labour - labour have had 13 years in power with a resonable to strong majority - why would they want to change voting system?

The Lib Dems want STV with multi-member constituencies. I'd like to have a referendum on it.

Any change to the voting system needs serious, serious thought.

I would like super-constituencies with STV personally, as proposed by the Lib Dems.

Labour favour AV+ as per the Jenkins report, but that was done in 1998.

Scotland currently use Additional Member but a lot of education would be needed on the change in the voting system if we were to implement in. We do use a form of STV in Northern Ireland though.

We could have the PR party list, which I really don't like because it removes constituency links.

here is a useful summary of the options.

Whatever happens we cannot take a referendum to the country now. People are saying 'I want PR' and then can't explain what it is. You give them the voting options and they turn around and tell you it's not PR.... The level of sheer ignorance is scary when you think what a huge upheaval it would be.

IMO before we have PR we also need another right-wing party to balance things out, otherwise the Conservatives just face Lib/Lab coalitions that everyone seems to think is so 'natural'.

Coolfonz - market rally probably more to do with the Euro bailouot!