I don't think the perfect political system can ever exist, but you can mitigate for extremes.
The UK system evolves as the law evolves, its a natural living entity and in my opinion it is inherently flawed. We rarely get a government elected with over 50% of the votes cast therefore we are nearly always ruled by a minority. We have to mitigate against that minority becoming a tyranny.
I am no expert on this at all, but I have my views and I believe in democracy, I believe the majority should prevail, but we rarely have a majority of the electorate voting for the ruling party. I will take the current government for an example as they were elected on 43.6% of the votes cast yet they have a thumping parliamentary majority of 80 that allows them to act almost unopposed. Since WW2 the largest vote for any party was for the Tories in 1955 who achieved 49.6% of the votes cast but had a majority just 37.
Now I don't think anyone needs to be a genius at maths to work out that is simply unfair.
PR would certainly give a fairer outcome on votes cast, but would you lose that affiliation of having a local MP who represents the majority interests of your constituency.
I really liked
@Gabriel post as its sensible and more transparent, i agree with it all apart from the wigs bit.
We also have a Government who appear to like centralised control rather than supporting local democracy. Simple things like underfunding local democratic institutions and removal of responsibilities from local government have also led to more centralisation and as the Government is based in London it has led in my opinion to a London centric government which enjoys extra funding and priviliges at the expense of those away from the Westminster bubble. Therefore I would like to see central government accede to have less power and the power be handed to the regions and the leaders such as the Mayors of the big cities who can then act on local needs rather than the focus be on national needs. The Tories to be fair have sort of half arsedly tried with this the Northern powerhouse stuff, but that appears to have slipped from Johnsons agenda as he centralises power. It is ironic that a party who is expected to conserve, centralises but that's for another thread.
As much as I despise Farage, it was grossly unfair on his party that they got no elected representatives for the size of their vote and it is no wonder so many people feel disenfranchised when that happens. So any new system has to take into account votes cast for smaller parties and then I might get a CPGB representative into Parliament
Maybe a way to do this is to scrap the Lords, get rid of the peers and introduce an elected house using PR that has similar powers to what the House of Lords currently has, because any increase in power would threaten the primacy of the Commons. Powers to revise, scrutinise and amend legislation should be the role as it is now but with the added legitimacy of those doing it being elected by the people and not being there because they were somebodies best mate or by accident of birth or a fucking Bishop. A future HoL must represent the views of all the people in the UK even if they are fascists.
Maybe it is time as well to remove the Queen as head of state, it is a palpable nonsense that she has to sign bills for them to become law. She can still do her Queenie stuff if she wants as I haven't really anything against the old bat, but I would much prefer an elected President, elected in a vote not associated with a general election and of no party affiliation.
I would also like to see Parliament itself moved away from London, let Parliament house become a museum and build a modern fit for purpose parliament building with accommodation near a big transport hub, Somewhere like Coventry would fit the bill, but being a proud Northerner why not have it up north and build it in Old Trafford after they knock the swamp down. They could do a property exchange and build the rag cunts a new ground on Parliament Square.
So to end I wrote this other day in another thread and copied and pasted it here in case anybody missed it. Its my thoughts on Parliament as it stands
The UK has a huge democratic deficit, what exists is far too centralised and power rests in the hands of too few people. The HoL is a joke, one of only two parliamentary houses in the world that has unelected clergy sitting as members, the other is Iran.
I actually agree with Cummings, cabinet based government is unwieldly but I don't agree that it is too large.
Local government has been stripped of power and finance, resulting in more centralised decisions and an overwhelming bias towards London.
FTP means Governments can be elected without a majority of votes cast and too many votes are wasted votes, so minority parties are locked out of the political system altogether.
The media exerts far too much political influence as do lobbyists who pay for access to media.
Party funding is a disgrace, hidden donors spend millions to exert influence on politicians
The devolved parliaments are shorn of power and we need a system of federalism otherwise the UK breaks up at some point in the future.
Constituencies can be gerrymandered by the party in power with influence on the boundary commission through the chairmanship of the Speaker and appointed Justices.
We have an unelected head of state, just like Saudi Arabia and North Korea.
MPs are chronically underpaid which means we do not get the best people to do the job.
The HoC is an antiquity that has no place in a modern country, its proceedings are arcane and its rules baffling to those who vote to send representatives to parliament, it should be closed, turned into a museum and a new modern parliament built somewhere in the midlands or the North, away from the City of London, who just happen to have right to send a representative to the HoC to listen to proceedings ffs.
Ministers are not held to account by the 1 question rule, they can evade questions without recourse
Government can bypass Parliament and make announcement regarding policy at press conferences, making them unaccoutable
Vive la revolution
