I originally posted this as part of another discussion - Democracy - and I suspected then it might get lost, so here on its own...

Admittedly I haven't done a complete search in the forum archives (I'm constantly being told that "The following words are either very common, too long, or too short..." whatever I search for), but from what I can see there doesn't seem to have been much discussion on proportional representation, which I think is an essential part of democracy, and I was wondering what views there were of it in its various forms - party list, single transferable vote, additional member system etc - or indeed a variation of them.

I assume (probably wrongly) that most people in a political forum are aware of the major pros and cons of both voting systems - the current first past the post system and proportional representation - so I was somewhat hoping for more of a 'how could it benefit British politics' discussion rather than simply having endless circular arguments over whether any particular form was 'right' or 'wrong'.

FWIW I'm a great believer in PR because of the increased power it affords to the current minority parties and, in it's transferable vote form, it can offer voters who are bipartisan in their views a way of expressing that (to a degree), however don't believe it can be implemented without a) some major changes to the underlying political structure otherwise it would simply complicate a system already close to breakdown, and b) a great deal more public education and discussion about political affairs.

Has anyone got any views for or against?

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"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace in a continual state of alarm (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing them with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary" -- H.L. Mencken