A Sense of Proportion

"First Past The Post gives us the opportunity to kick the bastards out"? Really? Until last year's result, at best no more conclusive than anything under AV, the party of government had changed precisely once in 31 years. And that had been 13 years before.

In fact, First Past The Post makes it practically impossible to create a new political force, keeps even extremely stupid or lazy people in Parliament for decades on end, sustains formations long after they have outlived their usefulness, and requires them all to appeal to the same tiny number of unrepresentative voters.

Far from there being any risk of giving seats to the BNP, that organisation is now as good as defunct. Like the BUF in the Thirties and the NF in the Seventies, it made a lot of noise for a short time and then it went away. That is not a product of First Past The Post. It is just what these people do. I shall be in my sixties before they re-emerge. And they won't get anywhere then, either.

Party lists are one thing, and there are numerous reasons why we must have nothing to do with them. But who, exactly, would give their second or subsequent preferences to the Nazis? To whom, exactly, would Nazi voters give their second or subsequent preferences? Nazi candidates would be eliminated in the first round, and, their voters having expressed no second preferences, that would be that.

But not only do we need MPs to be elected by a system more representative of public opinion at large, we also need the general electorate to enjoy the decisive say in choosing the parties' candidates as well as in choosing among them.