Don't Vote Liberal

Clegg has shown his true colours, he wants a Tory government. Or he isn't very bright.

On TV this morning he said that if Labour is third in the popular vote he would no support them. He does not understand the British electoral system. Because many Labour supporters in seats where Labour is third might want to vote tactically, as Compass has suggested. But in doing that the popular vote for Labour would go down so if Clegg wants Labour voters to support the Liberals in marginal seats he had better change his tune.

The difficulty is that in the British system the popular vote has very little meaning. So remember a vote for the liberals is now a vote for the Tories in government!

A better voting system

There has been much discussion of voting systems in the past and given the current state of the parties there will be a lot more after the general election. So here is a simplistic proposal.

In each constituency the will be an alternative vote, that is each elector lists the candidates in order and the votes get transferred until one candidate has a majority. This will elect the lower house. The upper house will be chosen by proportional representation based on the first votes of each elector.

To avoid to many small parties there would be a limit that for a party to count towards the upper house they would need at least 10% of the national vote.

To ensure that the constituency MP's were genuinely representative they would need to have been resident in the constituency for at least 5 continuous years before the election. Residency for a year would mean having spent at least 250 nights in the years in the constituency. An almost simple rule but it would stop rich carpetbaggers just buying a house in an area and never living there. It would also mean tha the lower house would have to organise its affairs much more efficiently, it could only meet for 115 days a year! Given that many MP's seem to think it is only a part-time job what would be the problem with that. I am sure some would resent that argument that it is aprt-time but if an MP can be a minister as well as an MP, both jobs must be part-time.

Also ministers would have to come from the upper house or work from home. Wouldn't that set a good example.

Cameron's Contricks

Hi,

The "Big Society" should be called the "Big Trick". It is just the old right wing Tory philosophy dressed up to sound good. With a bit of thought it can been seen through. Notice that people will have the right to cut the council tax NOT to increase it. Surely if the people are to be given power why can't it go both ways. If your local council cuts too many things, as most will if Cameron gets into power. why shouldn't we be able to make them spend more if that is what we want.

Locally a bunch of redneck Tories from the backwoods want to turn the street lights of in Norwich where I live. Very few people in Norwich want to do that but hey we don't count, lets save a few pennies even if we are happy to spend that money.

Again we see the hypocrisy over unitary status for Norwich, at last the present government has given Norwich some local autonomy but Mr Cameron has said that he would take it away even though the people of Norwich want it. He wants us to be ruled by hicks from 50 miles away, so much for people power in their communities.

Cameron had a disabled child so he understood the importance of the NHS. Perhaps if he had a child who needed the benefit system who we see the need for it to be protected and supported. He is meant to be clever but one of the signs of an educated person should be the ability to see how decisions affect people not just yourself. It makes we wonder whether a first class degree from Oxford just means that you are a highly qualified con artists!