I believe First Past the Post is one of the major reasons why people voted to Leave the EU.
It only works if you have two parties.
If you look at Scottish or Northern Irish constituencies, the vast majority of MPs are elected with below 50% of the vote (often far below 50%). These are constituencies where there are, at least, four parties jostling for election.
There hasn't been a British government (bar the 2010-2015 coalition) that has had the backing of over 50% of the vote since the mid-1930's. Thatcher, Blair, Wilson, Churchill etc. - they all governed Britain on the back of a minority of voters.
It's so absurd that there is a definition of the word "majority" in the Oxford English Dictionary specifically for British politics (they use the word majority when they should use "margin of victory").
Approximately 80% of seats in Westminster are considered safe. That means neither the Labour or Tory parties make much effort to canvas the voters in these. They just know they'll get the most votes (although not necessarily the majority) every election.
Ireland is a much, much more democratic country than Britain. Although we have our own problems with TDs, and there are party loyalties etc., most Irish people will have some connection to their local TD. It's not uncommon to know one of your TDs, or at least know someone who knows someone. Likewise Irish people actually have options to vote for politicians they feel much more aligned to. Parties like People Before Profit simply could never exist in Westminster.
We may say politicians like the Healy-Raes or Michael Lowry are an embarrassment. But we can confidently say that, whether we like it or not, the Dail is a pretty good representation of Irish society. I believe that the collapse of Fianna Fail in 2011 and the subsequent emergence of new groups, parties and influential independents, has meant we've got a decent enough parliament. FF and FG will never get more than 35% of the vote again. But that's fine. We seemed to have copped on that the British Parliamentary system is nonsense.
When we vote, we're voting for people to speak on our behalf in our parliament. The government should come from that parliament. In the UK, it's always a blunt choice, with no room for nuance or complex political views - you're just voting for which party should be the government, regardless of how good the candidates are or what if the party truly reflects your beliefs. In Ireland, you have far better options for expressing your own political standpoint.
Irish politicians, and most other European politicians, are far more used to having to listen to voters, work out what the concerns are on the ground and then having to negotiate and work out compromises. It's because there are far less safe seats in the Dail, and other EU parliaments. Candidates have to actually work for their votes.
It's something British politicians don't do. I remember the 2010 election in the UK and how markedly different it was to Irish elections. In the UK the most you'd get is a leaflet through the door. The candidates just didn't bother. My wife (who's English) was shocked at how much canvassing went on in Ireland (she's lived all over the UK, so this experience I had wasn't unique to where we were living).
This disconnect between MPs and voters means that you have a huge number of people in the UK who genuinely, and legitimately, feel they don't have any voice in politics.
The Leave campaign just targeted these people. The Remain campaign, who were largely happy with the status quo, ignored them. That's why if a second referendum was run, you may see another vote to Leave.
I really don't want the UK to leave the EU. But Britain does need something to change drastically. The EU isn't at fault in Britain. It's Westminster.
I should add... the Electoral Reform commission did a study on what would happen if PR were to be introduced to Westminster. This was a few years ago. They claimed it would have meant UKIP would have taken dozens of seats in Parliament. I don't think this is valid.
Under PR you have bigger constituencies and the onus is on parties, and other candidates, to try to convince people who wouldn't give them a first preference to give them a second preference. Therefore you would see totally different campaigns being run - and therefore different issues being discussed at the doorsteps. I think UKIP would get quite a few seats, but they'd never get more than 15%.
So...
There probably are some good politicians in Westminster. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are morally corrupt and don't stand for anything other than election. But, for all it's faults, Ireland, like most other EU nations, is a far more democratic country than Britain.
Britain has coasted along on top of it's Empire and then by the huge money it received after WW2 from the Marshall plan. It hasn't really needed a parliament that actually did anything for them. Now they do, and because of the binary culture of it's politics, they don't have the right people there to do anything useful.
It only works if you have two parties.
If you look at Scottish or Northern Irish constituencies, the vast majority of MPs are elected with below 50% of the vote (often far below 50%). These are constituencies where there are, at least, four parties jostling for election.
There hasn't been a British government (bar the 2010-2015 coalition) that has had the backing of over 50% of the vote since the mid-1930's. Thatcher, Blair, Wilson, Churchill etc. - they all governed Britain on the back of a minority of voters.
It's so absurd that there is a definition of the word "majority" in the Oxford English Dictionary specifically for British politics (they use the word majority when they should use "margin of victory").
Approximately 80% of seats in Westminster are considered safe. That means neither the Labour or Tory parties make much effort to canvas the voters in these. They just know they'll get the most votes (although not necessarily the majority) every election.
Ireland is a much, much more democratic country than Britain. Although we have our own problems with TDs, and there are party loyalties etc., most Irish people will have some connection to their local TD. It's not uncommon to know one of your TDs, or at least know someone who knows someone. Likewise Irish people actually have options to vote for politicians they feel much more aligned to. Parties like People Before Profit simply could never exist in Westminster.
We may say politicians like the Healy-Raes or Michael Lowry are an embarrassment. But we can confidently say that, whether we like it or not, the Dail is a pretty good representation of Irish society. I believe that the collapse of Fianna Fail in 2011 and the subsequent emergence of new groups, parties and influential independents, has meant we've got a decent enough parliament. FF and FG will never get more than 35% of the vote again. But that's fine. We seemed to have copped on that the British Parliamentary system is nonsense.
When we vote, we're voting for people to speak on our behalf in our parliament. The government should come from that parliament. In the UK, it's always a blunt choice, with no room for nuance or complex political views - you're just voting for which party should be the government, regardless of how good the candidates are or what if the party truly reflects your beliefs. In Ireland, you have far better options for expressing your own political standpoint.
Irish politicians, and most other European politicians, are far more used to having to listen to voters, work out what the concerns are on the ground and then having to negotiate and work out compromises. It's because there are far less safe seats in the Dail, and other EU parliaments. Candidates have to actually work for their votes.
It's something British politicians don't do. I remember the 2010 election in the UK and how markedly different it was to Irish elections. In the UK the most you'd get is a leaflet through the door. The candidates just didn't bother. My wife (who's English) was shocked at how much canvassing went on in Ireland (she's lived all over the UK, so this experience I had wasn't unique to where we were living).
This disconnect between MPs and voters means that you have a huge number of people in the UK who genuinely, and legitimately, feel they don't have any voice in politics.
The Leave campaign just targeted these people. The Remain campaign, who were largely happy with the status quo, ignored them. That's why if a second referendum was run, you may see another vote to Leave.
I really don't want the UK to leave the EU. But Britain does need something to change drastically. The EU isn't at fault in Britain. It's Westminster.
I should add... the Electoral Reform commission did a study on what would happen if PR were to be introduced to Westminster. This was a few years ago. They claimed it would have meant UKIP would have taken dozens of seats in Parliament. I don't think this is valid.
Under PR you have bigger constituencies and the onus is on parties, and other candidates, to try to convince people who wouldn't give them a first preference to give them a second preference. Therefore you would see totally different campaigns being run - and therefore different issues being discussed at the doorsteps. I think UKIP would get quite a few seats, but they'd never get more than 15%.
So...
There probably are some good politicians in Westminster. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are morally corrupt and don't stand for anything other than election. But, for all it's faults, Ireland, like most other EU nations, is a far more democratic country than Britain.
Britain has coasted along on top of it's Empire and then by the huge money it received after WW2 from the Marshall plan. It hasn't really needed a parliament that actually did anything for them. Now they do, and because of the binary culture of it's politics, they don't have the right people there to do anything useful.
