Alternate Vote (AV) v First Passed the Post (FPtP)

I don't know about anybody else but I can't make my mind up about the great British vote fight. I suspected that I was not being given all the facts so I decided to try a little research. When I was young there was no thought about AV because all the talk was about Proportional Representation (PR). Basically from what I can remember seats in Westmonster would be allocated on the percentage of the vote cast for each party.

So I did some basic and admittedly crude calculations based on a parliament comprising 650 members. I looked up the results of the 2010 election and calculated what the make up of our parliament would be if we had allocated seats according by PR instead of FPtP.

Here are the results:-

Party                        Current Seats         No of Votes    PR Result

1. Conservative             307             10,726,614            234
2. Labour                      258               8,609,527           188
3. Lib Dem                      57               6,836,824           150
4. UKIP                            0                919,546              20    
5. BNP                             0                564,331              12
6. SNP                              6                491,386             11
7. Green                            1                285,616              7
8. Sinn Fein                       5                171,942              4
9. DUP                              8                168,216              4
10. Plaid                              3                165,394              4
11. SDLP                            1                110,970              3
12. Ulster Unionists              1                102,361             2
13. English Dems                  0                 64, 826            1
14. Others (added together)   2               480,000            11 (approx figures)

So as usual the electorate are being stitched up by the Political Class. The only truly democratic system that would give everyone representation is being ignored. At one time it was the cornerstone of every LibDem manifesto and when you see the difference it would make for them one can understand why. Now however, Mr Clegg has had a sniff of power and there is no way that the Tories at Westmonster would agree to PR. We cannot have the electorate being properly represented can we?

Look at the figures in detail....over one and a half MILLION voters put a cross beside UKIP, BNP or English Democrat and didn't get a single seat! Nearly 300,000 voted Green and got Caroline Lucas (one seat). In fact 2.4 MILLION people voted and got Caroline Lucas and one Independent MP. Thie means that 8.75% of the population effectively became disenfranchised under FPtP.

They are even scared that AV may leave a chink open for a right wing 'extremist' (you know someone who doesn't want the EU or mass immigration) but of course Nick Clegg had to half heartedly campaign for a change in the voting system or he would have reneged on everything that he ever stood for before Cameron gave him a key to No 10.

So we have been allowed AV which doesn't begin to address the real problems of our undemocratic voting system. It will be confusing and I believe it could also be corrupted because once people start counting second, third and fourth choices anything can happen.

I don't want either so I won't bother.  What's the point?