Tuesday 25 May 2010

'Weighted' Opinion

John Curtice, Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University, has an article on Parliamentary Brief on-line in which he writes that the present hung parliament isn’t a one off - and why first past the post is no longer a guarantee of majority government. He ends his article with this paragraph:
"Doubtless those who campaign in the forthcoming referendum against switching from first past the post to the alternative vote will do so on the grounds that the change would make hung parliaments more likely. That is undoubtedly true. The only problem is we are likely to be stuck with them in future anyway."
The good professor would appear to have failed to consider, or deliberately omitted, two other factors which have an effect on hung parliaments. At any election where the voter is faced with little difference in the choices on offer, it is hardly any surprise that no party wins an absolute majority of seats. Picking up on his point that we are likely to be stuck with hung parliaments, this is especially true when the three largest parties all concede the ability for self-government to an alien surpreme body. It is also not a surprise when these parties, with the apparent collusion of the media, 'shut out' other so called minor parties from the debate and in so doing avoid discussing certain topics during an election campaign - something decided by the previously mentioned subservience to an alien 'government'.

Methinks it is a case of 'back to the drawing board', Prof.

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