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Why We Changed Our Voting System

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Why We Changed Our Voting System
It’s About Time We Changed Our Voting System
The voting system in the UK (First Past the Post) came into widespread use for Westminster elections more than 130 years ago and has barely changed since. Some might say the fact that the system has managed to last this long is a testament to how well it works. However, many people believe this just shows the unwillingness to change from both the British government and the British electorate. There are many alternatives available which represent the views of the population much better and there is a large amount of evidence to suggest that the current system is one of the main reasons for the low voter count at British elections. Many people believe their vote does not mean anything, which for many individuals is in fact the case.
There are many alternatives to our First Past the Post System which represent the opinions of the electorate proportionally. One such system is party list proportional representation. This type of PR is by far the …show more content…
This house is largely made up of people promoted by the leader of the party in power. This means that the current prime minister can manipulate the political bias of the House of Lords. However because the House of lords is big at present any prime minister who tries to fill the house with his own political appointments faces a large amount of public criticism. Many people believe the House of Lords should be abolished because it is expensive and un-democratic. However, under our present First Past the Post System it can provide a useful check against bad legislation coming from a majority government in the Commons. For example David Cameron in October of 2015 threatened to suspend the House of Lords or flood it with Tory peers over tax credits. However, the House of Lords is not necessary under a representative system as legislation could only be passed if it has support across the political
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