tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36070744.post7702769551934031425..comments2023-10-20T10:08:03.133+01:00Comments on SomeBeans: The elephant in the roomSomeBeanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11076372969807940310noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36070744.post-24756452069559669812011-04-19T12:16:55.919+01:002011-04-19T12:16:55.919+01:00@Somebeans (trying again - Blogspot has eaten my c...@Somebeans (trying again - Blogspot has eaten my comment twice already. Grr!)<br /><br />I think the reason why independent candidates stand little chance is little to do with the voting system (but more with the whole electoral system in which party machines can devote more resources than individuals). <br /><br />In my view, what you call a "fair" proportional system, allocating seats on the basis of a national vote favours *national* *parties* - and hence disadvantages regional parties and even more so independent, non-party-affiliated candidates.<br /><br />So I'm not sure "fair" is a useful term: it may be unfair that a party polling, say, 10% of the vote nationally, gets nothing like 10% of the seats in parliament; but is it not equally unfair that someone who gets 50% of the vote in a specific area, but nationally less than 0.1%, doesn't stand a chance to get elected?<br /><br />How "fair" a proportional system is depends a lot on how big the constituencies are.koenfuciusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36070744.post-86656726990999380522011-04-16T19:12:06.935+01:002011-04-16T19:12:06.935+01:00@Koenfucius practically PR systems are usually bas...@Koenfucius practically PR systems are usually based on constituencies of some sort - and so capture regional parties.<br /><br />Independent candidates stand little chance of election under the current system, I think there may be one in Northern Ireland this term and there was one in Wyre Forest in the last parliament.<br /><br />Regional parties are strongly represented in the devolved assemblies.<br /><br />The current system favours regional parties over parties who have widespread uniform support.SomeBeanshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11076372969807940310noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36070744.post-25075596167282575422011-04-16T17:14:59.674+01:002011-04-16T17:14:59.674+01:00Isn't a problem with what you call "fair&...Isn't a problem with what you call "fair" that it would disadvantage regional parties? A party might poll 60% of the vote in a certain region, but barely a few % nationally. Even worse for independent candidates not affiliated with a party - their share of the national vote would be negligible, and so they would not stand little chance of being elected.koenfuciusnoreply@blogger.com