The House of Lords should become a second chamber where just two-thirds of members are elected
There has been an internal cabinet committee battle over whether to support a wholly elected second chamber, or to leave an appointed element.
The gossip is that M\’Lord Mandy of Fop has been insisting on retention of an appointed element. I wonder why?
They would be elected from 12 electoral regions, with nine in England and the other three in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The regions would be drawn up by May 2012.
Don\’t be so bloody stupid. They\’ll be the same regions as are used for the euro-elections.
and members elected by an open list, proportional system designed
Can anyone decipher that for me? Just what are they proposing as the electoral system? Euro election stuff again?
If so I\’ll have to keep my UKIP membership going I think…..
Open lists are ones where you vote for a candidate from a list, as opposed to where you vote for a party and they choose the order of candidates who get elected from their list.
So it would be good for you if you are more popular than the average UKIP candidate. So I’d keep the blog going as well.
Tim adds: Thanks for explaining that. Still not sure how it works in between “party” and “individual” though. As to blogs, well, yes, there has been some evidence recently that they can hinder as well as help….
“Still not sure how it works in between “party” and “individual” though.”
Basically, you vote for a individual, but as at the Euro elections, it counts as a vote for that person’s party, so the number of seats would be allocated to the parties in exactly the same way as they are at Euro elections.
The difference is that, instead of the seats being allocated to the people at the top of each party’s list, they would be allocated to the people with the most votes within each party.
The main problem I see is a practical issue. The idea seems to be to use the same constituencies as at the Euro elections, but to elect an average of 25 representatives from each and unlike the Euros, each candidate on the list would have to have a box to put a cross in, rather than just having one for the party as a whole.
The ballot paper would have to be absolutely massive.
“The ballot paper would have to be absolutely massive.”
See state upper house elections in Australia.
1999 NSW Legislative Council ballot paper was referred to as the “tablecloth”.
264 candidates nominated for 81 groups.
The paper measured one metre by 700mm.