I think there are three issues here, the question of people not voting, the types of PR and the size and design of constituencies.You could argue that increasing rates of non participation in elections demonstrates the success of politics in this country in solving many of the issues that concern people today. In fact the low turnout at the last election is an indication that people are very satisfied with the Tony Blair.If the political elite was truly concerned at low turnout rates, the answer is easy to resolve, copy the Australian system of compulsory voting, where if none of the parties is fancied by the voter, there is a box to tick saying ‘none of the above’.
As for PR, the question is which system to adopt, the French system of election appeals to me, where there is a run off between the top two candidates in a second election if the leading candidate in the first election does not win 51% of the total vote.I would be totally against the Israeli system which means very small minority parties can push through policies against the will of the majority of voters. As for New Zealand, there is much dissatisfaction about the system and reforms are being planned to the system, even a return to a modified form of first past the post is now being considered by political parties in New Zealand.
Looking at constituencies, the South East Region Constituency for our Representatives in the European Parliament is considered a big mistake by many. In my interview with Peter Skinner MEP see http://www.oxfordprospect.co.uk/Peter%20Skinner%20MEP.htm he finds it very hard to cover such a large constituency. His patch of 8.1 million people covering 83 Westminster Constituencies makes our MEPs seem remote from us.In the case of MEP I think the Region should be divided into 3 or 4 European Constituencies, in order to make things easier for both MEPs and voters.
As for Westminster MPs, I think the constituencies are too small, take Oxfordshire, we have 6 Seats representing us in the County. At the last General Election this resulted in 1 Labour, 1 LibDem and 4 Tory, even though only 34% of voters, voted Tory. If we had a single Oxfordshire multimember constituency, the Conservatives would have 2 seats, Labour 2 and Lib Dem 2. Which would mean afair distribution of seats.
Editor Oxfordprospect.co.uk & Webmaster Henleylabourparty.co.uk
