Tag Archives: FPTP

Sunlit uplands revisited

Posted on July 9, 2024 by Stephen Shellard

On the edition of BBC Radio’s Any Questions broadcast immediately following the UK election on July 4th, I was shocked to hear Charlie Falconer – Lord Falconer, who I have always thought of as something of a wise owl – … Continue reading →

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Giving Keir Starmer a (gentle) shove…

Posted on October 7, 2021 by Stephen Shellard

You may have noticed that the recent Labour Party conference debated electoral reform with a proposal to remove the First Past the Post system for elections to the Westminster Parliament and replace it with Proportional Representation. 80% of the party … Continue reading →

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Saving the union: A job for a superhero? Nah — there could be a fix, but is it really worth the bother?

Posted on January 29, 2021 by Stephen Shellard

Having “done Brexit”, the intervention of the pandemic has deflected Boris Johnston from what might be his second great project, securing the Union of the United Kingdom. The early signs are, that his political vision falls a long way short of … Continue reading →

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How Many Political Parties do we Really Need?

Posted on January 9, 2020 by Stephen Shellard

“One of the few advantages of the First Past the Post [FPTP] electoral system is that it simplifies the choices set before the electorate by the rather brutal device of limiting the number of parties which have any meaningful chance of winning seats. A proportional system inevitably brings more marginal parties into contention for seats and so has the opposite tendency. ” Continue reading →

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