A new electoral system

Robert Henderson

The present first past the post is transparently unfair because it does
not represent the electoral strengths of the various parties.
Proportional representation is undesirable because it normally
produces a situation where no party can be held responsible because
only
a coalition is possible and because frequently small parties gain undue
influence. PR also in practice generally weakens the link between
voters and individual MPs.

Is there a halfway house between what we have and PR? There is. Two
member constituencies elected on first past the post, ie, the top two
in
a constituency election would become MPs. The number of MPs would
remain the same, with constituencies doubling in size. Parties could
put up two candidates in each constituency. Voters could vote for two
candidates. Multiple candidate votes already exist in council elections
so it is not novel in British politics.

The consequences of such a system would be to better represent the
electorates' wishes whilst retaining the constituency link with MPs.
Nor
would it generally result in hung parliaments because what was gained
in
one constituency by a party coming a poor second would tend to be lost
in another constituency.

Voters would feel that their votes counted for more because a candidate
running well behind the front runner could still be elected. This would
encourage people to vote - the lowest turnouts are in constituencies
which are "safe".

In addition, voters would have a choice of MPs to go to with a
problem, a considerable boon if the MP you currently have is
ideologically or self-interestedly opposed to what you wish them to do.
That applies even where both MPs in a constituency are from the same
party because both the major parties are very broad churches.

Such a system would also allow constituencies to be much more equal in
electoral size because doubling the size of a constituency will tend
to
iron out anomalies. I also suspect that it would mitigate the
disproportionate effect of population movements between the re-drawing
of electoral boundaries, ie, constituencies can swell or reduce in
size
between re-drawing. .

Most people would vote as they do now because that is the nature of
voters in Britain, but there would be enough movement at the margin
amongst floating voters, those supporting a single issue or giving a
personal vote to a particular candidate and those who simply wanted to
balance their vote to prevent a large majority