Why is it the way it is?

The UK parliamentary system has of course evolved over many, many centuries and dates back to the time when communication across the country was measured in days or weeks, and nobody could be involved directly in parliament unless they were present in the capital, London (or for Scotland prior to 1707, in Edinburgh).

You might argue that, given the speed of modern communications, nobody would now invent such a system. But in practice it still makes sense to have a location in each country where matters of national importance can be discussed and the solutions determined and then put into practice.

But the other huge change that has taken place in the last four decades is the availability of computers which can rapidly process complex sums and produce arithmetically accurate results.

Despite the great opportunity that has now opened up, Parliament still relies on the "show of hands" voting methods developed by the Ancient Greeks, with a few representatives standing-in for all the individual voters around the country. Everybody accepts that there is no direct agreement between the single vote that each MP can place and the relative numbers of that MP's constituents who would have voted that way. But all PR schemes until now have simply tinkered with adjusting the number of MPs each party has rather than tackling the real issue of their voting power.

The ProFirst Future

Now, with an electronic voting system in the House, each Division would be instantaneously processed to reflect the real weighting of the electorate as expressed at the most recent General Election, modified by any subsequent by-election results. And - uniquely among Proportional Representation schemes - ProFirst can be demonstrated in a sort of Parallel Parliament even when Divisions in the House are counted under the current system.

Nobody of course expects MPs to be enthusiastic about a system that would show everybody the level of support they themselves really enjoy. Indeed, when an earlier version of this system was suggested several years ago, it was comprehensively rubbished by Roy Jenkins who apparently thought no MP would stand for that degree of democracy.

For more on this subject, please check http://www.pfptp.org.uk, where much of the background is already discussed. You will be able to return to this site by using the back-arrow.



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