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Originally Posted by Hebdomad
As the voting system dictates to a large degree how we choose to vote (there's no point voting for the lib dems because they'll never get in, for example) and whom we vote for (the increase in parties) it is not a side issue.
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Given a referendum I would probably vote for proportional representation. This is because it might lead to a very slight destabalisation in British politics. I wouldn't get overly excited about the issue though because
1) It's very unlikely anything good would result from this, most of the problems with the UK political culture are caused by issues other than the electoral system. You'd just have our god-awful media pining for the old electoral system for the next millennia.
2) empirically, none of the countries which have better electoral systems fill me with any great hope. They might have it slightly better than us in terms of their parties, but is this translated into more social justice / better social policy / more freedom / higher standard of living?
A much more profound and important change would be for people to fully grasp that they, and not their governments, actually ultimately hold political power.