I used to think PR was a way of keeping people like Ken Clarke in government permanently.
It probably still is. However its other advantages, particularly over our electoral system, are so overwhelming I don't think it matters.
Aside from the usual arguments, it would also rescue the Opposition. Currently the Conservative need a 6% lead in the popular vote to gain equal seats in the Houses of Parliament, and a 10% lead to get a majority of one.
True, you don't need PR to stop this. You can redraw constituency boundaries -- effectively increasing the number of seats in the Tory South-East and decreasing it in the Labour North and Scotland (this will happen anyway).
Yet that is a half-hearted measure, and anyway it is difficult for the Tories to argue that they are being discriminated against when for years the didn't seem to mind when the electoral system worked in their favour.
Another advantage of PR is that it will allow our current monolithic politilcal parties to split into more politicall coherent units - e..g the anti EU tories, the Labour left.
posted by Matthew @ 9/30/2002 11:03:00 AM
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