Rev. 13 Dec 25
If not PV now, i.e. before the next election, then what? And if PV now then what next?
- Without urgent action we shall have FPTP at the next election. We might even decide to keep FPTP forever. As one Civil Servant told us, when faced with a question you either say Yes or you appoint a sub-committee to consider the matter. Or a Commission.
- We could decide to introduce PV after the next election. But why wait if we don’t have to? Because we must wait for the prospective finding of the prospective Commission? Why? PV can readily be replaced by something better, and is in any case an excellent first step towards at least two of the alternative options.
- Most options entail having multi-seat constituencies. We need to decide whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
- The Single Transferrable Vote (STV) is the option favoured by many.
- Many more countries use the simple PR (Proportional Representation) of the D’Hondt system, or a version thereof {*a8}.
- On the other hand, there may be strong support in the UK for the hybrid Additional Member System (AMS), in which half the MPs are elected in single-member constituencies and the other half by a D’Hondt-based form of PR. {a6}
- But pure AMS has major deficiencies, and AMS+, with PV for constituencies and PV for surplus parties, would be very greatly preferable. And PV Now is both feasible and a very good preparation for that.
- When the Commission reports it seems possible that its recommendation will be one of three plausible options: (a) STV, (b) AMS+, or (c) a continuation of PV. Or it might recommend yet another referendum; in which case it would be appropriate for that to offers voters a range of option, the result to be decided by PV, of course.
- And it might recommend letting each of the three devolved nations of the UK do their own thing, e.g. AMS in Scotland, D’Hondt in Wales, and STV in Northern Ireland.
- In any case, although PV is currently the best feasible basis for our future electoral system, it has some significant deficiencies which should be corrected (PV+) as soon as we are no longer constrained to having a purely manual count.