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Here's a more in-depth look at the @TheGreenParty policy to replace First Past the Post with a system of Proportional Representation (PR)...
[THREAD]
![Here's a more in-depth look at the @TheGreenParty policy to replace First Past the Post with a system of Proportional Representation (PR)...[THREAD]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EnHm4hJWMAElIa5.jpg "Here's a more in-depth look at the @TheGreenParty policy to replace First Past the Post with a system of Proportional Representation (PR)...[THREAD]")
[THREAD]
We’ll replace the First Past the Post system for parliamentary elections with a fair and proportional voting system. We are champions of the Good Systems Agreement, a cross-party commitment to democratic reform brokered by the @MakeVotesMatter campaign group.
FPTP is both morally, and mathematically, incompatible with the fundamental components of representative democracy, hence why only 2 European countries still use the system, the UK and Belarus.
Belarus is known as Europe's last dictatorship.
Belarus is known as Europe's last dictatorship.
FPTP produces disproportionate results, reduces voter choice and creates a divisive, confrontational political atmosphere. Parties have an incentive to attack, rather than to cooperate with each other.
Evidence suggests that countries with proportional voting systems also have more egalitarian social policy, have more progressive environmental policy, and are less likely to enter conflict.
Under PR, parties can only win a majority of seats... if they win a majority of votes, so this nullifies the risk of ‘tyranny of the minority’. Instead, constructive coalition governments are formed between similar parties, like currently in Sweden and Luxembourg.
For a simple introduction to the horrors of our voting system, watch this video:
In addition, we will create a fully elected House of Lords. Members will be elected for a maximum of ten years with half of the house being elected every 5 years.
[MORE THREAD]
[MORE THREAD]
The House of Lords also undermines our democracy, as it's a fully unelected chamber in Parliament. There are over 800 members, but only 650 members of the Commons, so we have more unelected representatives in the Lords than we have elected representatives in the Commons.
Not only that, but since peers are unelected, we cannot hold them accountable; we cannot vote them out if they act against our wishes. Peers can claim thousands of pounds in expenses without even speaking or voting in the House.
A reformed Lords, elected with a proportional voting system would allow us to retain the ability to have experts in specific fields be in the Lords, while making the members accountable to the public.
