OK I can't be long on this post as I am being picked up to go dog sitting in about twenty minutes, but I am sitting listening to the drivel of Charles Kennedy, telling the conference that the Liberals are about social justice and equality, tell that to the single mother who can no longer afford to go to Belfast to see her sister because you have put extra tax onto the flights making it financially exclusive. The Liberals should try looking at their proposals for tax plans for cars, try telling the same single mother who can't afford to get to work because she cannot afford to get the bus (due to spiralling prices because of tax increases) and can't afford to run a car for the same reason!
Mr Kennedy is now going on about the house of lords and proportional representation, he seems to be suggesting that the Proportional Representation system is easy to understand. OK then Charles what happens if I get 30 votes out of 100 possible and the quota is 25 as it is a three member ward, I am elected what happens to the rest of the votes? I have five spare! You would have thought that the five votes spare then go to the second choice but NO all of my votes are counted again on their second choice but they only count as a fraction of the vote for first choice. The fraction is worked out by an equation which I must admit alludes me at present. Plus if there is a draw then the number of transfer votes then get taken into account.
His suggestion that those against PR are saying that the UK electorate is thick is just stupid really. I am not saying that people CAN not understand it I am saying people WILL not understand it. They will not understand how their vote turns into a person, they don't with the Scottish Parliamentary elections as shown through the Arbuthnott Commission. This will put people off voting! Like it or not it will. The system will also allow the opposition to cherry pick issues that they can get into the paper with and fob off the real ones so that they don't have to do any work! It happens now with quite a lot of the list MSP's in Scotland, I will not name names but there is at least one in my area! My concern is for my constituents and their well being, PR creates weak government and weak decisions, and will not best serve my constituents.
Oh yeah and it is still against Labour Party policy.
1 comment:
The great thing about PR is that there are so many variations that it could occupy the LibDems for the next thousand years whilst they try to figure out which system will work best for them!
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