UK Green Party gets second place

In May the UK will have a referendum about the voting system. Currently we use the x in the box system, this is summed up as first past the post.

In May we will have the opportunity to change this to the alternative vote system.

With the Alternative Voting System you would rate your choices, for example if there were 5 candidates in your constituency you would put a number 1 in your top choice and a 2 in your second and so on. You are also able to just put the number 1 if you dont want to list your preferences down to 5...

Yesterday BBC radio 5 ran an experiment using this new system and to my very pleasant surprise The Green Party came in second! What this means is that The Green Party is most peoples second choice for government in the UK!

The current voting system doesn't truly reflect peoples beliefs but Alternative Voting does.... In the proposed new system The Green Party as second choice would be given more seats in parliament.

IPLAYER LINK TO THE PROGRAM

Originally posted by Versa
Yesterday BBC radio 5 ran an experiment using this new system and to my very pleasant surprise The Green Party came in second! What this means is that The Green Party is most peoples second choice for government in the UK!

The current voting system doesn't truly reflect peoples beliefs but Alternative Voting does.... In the proposed new system The Green Party as second choice would be given more seats in parliament.

IPLAYER LINK TO THE PROGRAM

Do you think that this may be more reflective of the group polled though, I'm not sure, and I may be being overly judgemental, but do you think the result would have been the same, say it had been on This Morning, or similar? I really don't want to be cynical, I have always been in favour of proportional representation, and I got my Alternative Voting form in the post today along with all it's shiny celebrity endorsements...but.....I do wonder....

Originally posted by KilgoreTrout
Do you think that this may be more reflective of the group polled though, I'm not sure, and I may be being overly judgemental, but do you think the result would have been the same, say it had been on This Morning, or similar? I really don't want to be cynical, I have always been in favour of proportional representation, and I got my Alternative Voting form in the post today along with all it's shiny celebrity endorsements...but.....I do wonder....

Im not sure, a lot of people I've spoken to would have put the Greens as their second choice too, but again that may be down to my choice of friends...

I'm going to vote on it though, it seems to be fairer to me....

Personally I like the FPTP system, and prefer that system to any of the other methods of gerrymandering the elections.

Although if I had a choice I would lean towards the local mayoral one of buying and selling votes.. since that seems a lot more attuned to how our system really works.

The First Passed the Post (FPTP) system versus the Alternative Vote (AV). Both have advantages, but if you take the view that one person should have a single vote, then FPTP would be the choice. If you think that your vote can be endlessly recycled and can therefore be used more than once, then AV seems to be the choice.

First passed the post
Alternative vote

AV may give some of the smaller parties some hope and should increase the Liberal Democrats, but it probably won't impact things too much due to the traditional voting patterns in the constituencies.

There are pros and cons with each system.

As to the Greens! God help us. The last people I would want to have any power is the Greens. Have you seen their manifesto and really sat down and worked out what would happen if they got in? I expect they would be the "protest vote" winner by people who think the AV system is pointless and don't want to tick a major party. Anyway, this is a discussion about AV and FPTP, not the Green Party, so ‘scuse the rant.

Regards

Originally posted by paraphi
The First Passed the Post (FPTP) system versus the Alternative Vote (AV). Both have advantages, but if you take the view that one person should have a single vote, then FPTP would be the choice. If you think that your vote can be endlessly recycled and can therefore be used more than once, then AV seems to be the choice.

All votes would be recycled if a 50% majority wasn't reached not just the fringe votes.... So your number 1 vote would also be counted again not just your number 3 or 5 vote..... Also if you just want one party and have no number 2 preference you are free to just put a 1 in one box so your vote would act as FPTP. You aren't obliged to uses the ranking system.

Originally posted by paraphi
The First Passed the Post (FPTP) system versus the Alternative Vote (AV). Both have advantages, but if you take the view that one person should have a single vote, then FPTP would be the choice. If you think that your vote can be endlessly recycled and can therefore be used more than once, then AV seems to be the choice.

Unfortunately, what you have written here is a flagrant untruth. I apologise if I sound snarky, but I have to campaign against liars and cheats, and they all use this stupid argument so it does get tiresome.

Both systems mean a person has ONLY ONE VOTE.

With (Fairer Votes) AV there is NO VOTE RECYCLING. If your vote is beaten at any stage, you move to your next choice. With AV it actually means that your vote ALWAYS COUNTS, rather than under FPTP where your vote usually gets cast out and your opinion ignored.

Please don't spread lies.

The Revenant.

I may be wrong but as I understand it AV will give us what we have today with the coalition

Originally posted by dizzylizzy
I may be wrong but as I understand it AV will give us what we have today with the coalition

How?

I think the idea is to better achieve proportional representation, so parties like the Green Party for example would (by dint of being many peoples second choice) achieve more seats in parliament.

I listened to that Radio 5 program with Victoria Derbyshire and it was very interesting.

I think the re-distribution of peoples votes if their first, second or third (or Fourth choice as happened on the radio show) is an interesting concept BUT I personally fear that what it leads to is a dilution and probable inactivity and stalemate in any form of Government which might take shape.....

I personnally think party politics is an old fashioned notion, you only have to read threads on ATS and other sites to see that people have bigotted and historical political beliefs, based on what they have been 'brought up with' and this I think is prehistoric.....

I do wonder though about the 'average man / woman' on the street because the result of this experiment was to re-elect the Labour candidate...... the one who was representing the Labour party, The Party which has put us so much in debt as a country that we simply cannot afford ourselves as a country.....

Any cuts are hard and harsh and there are definitaly those in our society whom have more than they should and it seems a little unfair to say the least but i find it surprizing that this experiment highlighted the Fact that the public are keen to rush back in to electing the Labour party back into power.... the very same party who have put our country into turmoil and problems ???

3 second memories.................. probably not, I think that most of the population is so shallow in it's thinking and unwilling to learn and educate itself that it deserves what it votes for.... and based on this experiment and possible AV systems.... then I do not hold out much hope for the UK........

Regards

PDUK

reply to post by Versa


WOW I'm pretty shocked! 5 Live is mainly a sports channel, so it is a fairly wide cross section of society (albeit, mostly male, due to the focus on footy/rugby/cricket), I would've expected this from the "pretentious" radio 3, 4 or 6, but not 5! I'm a 1/1xtra sort of guy myself... I'd have thought the more high brow stations maybe... but 5 is about as low-brow as they come!

Personally I'd expect 1x to be labour, and 1, 2 and 5 to be half-half...

reply to post by rufusthestuntbum


I like to think that it proved to some extent that people in the UK do care about 'Green issues' no matter what their social background or gender is.