david 3mo ago • 100%
No, with the party list system, any one party which gets north of something like 60,000 votes gets an MP and the party chooses who gets the seat, so the leader cannot lose their seat. They are immune from becoming unelected, no matter how unpopular.
In our current system, if you can't find a locality that wants you, you lose. Reform might have got a lot of votes, but its candidates are very unpopular, for good reason, and they don't win elections much. It's only because the Conservatives have been a total shit show that they got any MPs at all.
david 3mo ago • 100%
He lost his seat! Let's hope it's forever.
david 3mo ago • 100%
That "99% certainty" isn't aging well.
david 3mo ago • 100%
The far right are part of several coalitions in countries with PR, though. It doesn't vaccinate your political system against that. The main thing you can do to reduce the march of the far right is to make people feel like their lives are getting better and better.
david 3mo ago • 100%
The party list system would mean that Nigel Farage was never out of parliament in the last ages. He would win every time.
david 4mo ago • 55%
To be fair, the PR result is far, far worse than what we have - only 4 Reform seats. It's not a great time to be selling PR.
david 4mo ago • 100%
You make very good points.
david 4mo ago • 100%
Sweet of you to call me babe. How much did I drink last night?
david 4mo ago • 50%
Title: George Carlin Doesn't Vote. Reaction: Idiot.
Subtitle: George carlin speaks the truth, Voting Is another way to keep you in a closed distracted bubble. Reaction: George Carlin is working to bring about the end of democracy in the USA. Clearly he doesn't believe in it. I do.
david 4mo ago • 100%
I think being an independent suits Corbyn. He's always been more of an independent campaigner than a party MP. All the best to him now he's free of the whip.
david 4mo ago • 100%
Slime is the word.
david 4mo ago • 100%
Well he's a bit of an idiot if he's supporting Putin for free.
david 4mo ago • 100%
Historically, people turn to the far right when things are going terribly wrong. The conservatives ran the country into the ground and legitimised everything the far right stood for, then were upset that people started voting far right. I say it was unsurprising. Why not vote Reform if you're a rabid racist and your usual party are about the same policywise but have a boring British Asian leader instead of a white laddish thug of a politician?
If things get significantly better for folks, there's less motivation to vote in desperation.
david 4mo ago • 88%
I think it's a bad day to be criticising first past the post. Labour stole a bunch of seats from Farage with his kill-the-NHS policies, a turd who oughtn't to be allowed to attend D-day celebrations, given that he stands against almost everything that we fought the war for. Not sorry one bit for that disproportionality.
david 4mo ago • 100%
Yes, but I think you're overstating how right wing Labour pitched it. There were no claims to be anti woke. I think it was a pretty firmly centrist pitch. It's the Conservatives who are going to panic and try to out-nutcase Farage. Labour are going to try and be responsible and fix the broken ship. It's just whether they can do it fast enough for people to notice a big improvement in the cost of living vs wages problem.
david 4mo ago • 100%
Thank you. But we don't blame regular Aussies. You're good with us.
david 4mo ago • 100%
Yeah, the writer of the article seems to think that the Brexiteers were honest politicians trying to achieve what they believed would be good things for Britain. I don't think that's a widely held view in Britain.
david 4mo ago • 87%
You can't out-Farage Farage. The Putin-sponsored shyster has no limits. Elections are won in the middle ground in the UK. The Conservatives could easily win next time. They just need an affable leader, some more centrist policies and some headlines about how they've had a change of heart and want to be nice to poor people now and balance the books again. Worked for Cameron. Starmer, meanwhile, had to make a difference in the cost of living crisis so large that people notice they're getting better off, and restore hope that our children will be better off than us. Tall order.
david 4mo ago • 100%
She is one remarkably stupid, reality-blind narcissist.
david 4mo ago • 100%
I lived through the Blair government. Some left wing people were upset because he was on the right of the Labour Party, but things did indeed get a lot better in those ten years. Not everything by any stretch of the imagination. But no one expected him to make things better for gay people but not only did the legal situation change but the mood music affected the nation's morals for the better for a while. It became socially far less acceptable to hate on gay folk. Could happen again, but I get why you might be cynical.
So.... not compulsory then? Or do you just get fined or something? Anyway, earliest policy U-turn of the Conservative campaign so far - will it be their best?
Can't believe I managed to bag the username david! Tip: join feddit.uk while the good usernames are still spare! Thanks [@tom@feddit.uk](https://feddit.uk/u/tom)