More should be done to encourage independent candidates to stand. This would not only see more "single issue" candidates representing or championing a particular community cause, but it would put voter before party which is something which I always feel is a problem with our voting systems and results in a political class. The other benefit I'd perceive of having more independent candidates on the ballot would be an increase in turn out. Hardly democratic when there's usually a minority who can be bothered to turn up and vote.

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Party politics should be abolished it gives people a far too narrow view of the world, you can't make a comment sometimes without being Labelled a Tory or loony lefties by someone or other.If they get their way then It will be an Oxbridge carve up

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I agree. PR is a cop out. I'd prefer a more proportional system, but PR is no better than first pat the post really. The big issue, which has been mentioned is the fact that the vast majority of politician have never done a real job or stuggled to pay their bills. How can this be representative democracy. Also, as we have seen with the financial crash, parliament is at the mercy of a small group of unelected bankers and businessmen (almost exclusively men). Democracy, if it is to mean anything, must be extended to the economic as well as the political sphere. Of course this would upset the 'wealth creators', but they have had it easy for far too long.

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Surely this post heading should be amended to say Electoral Reform or Alternative Vote (AV)? It is currently confusing as the electoral reform offered by the Tories to the Lib Dems is the Alternative Vote system (AV) not Proportional Representation (PR). This confusion can be seen in Martin Copson�s comment �PR is a cop out. I'd prefer a more proportional system, but PR is no better than first past the post really.�

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There are obviously flaws in the current electoral system as admitted by the famous quote from the Tory Lord Hailsham about �elected dictatorships�. Governments are formed on minority votes, campaigning is limited to swing seats, many people don�t vote because their vote �doesn�t count�, other voters have to vote tactically rather than for their preferred candidate and many independents and small parties are put off standing because they will lose their deposits. Contrast this with AV where we can safely vote for our �first choice� even though we know they may not win but secure in the knowledge that our second choice becomes our tactical vote. As voters can confidence in voting for their first choice then it is more likely that the smaller parties/independents will get a representative vote and more likely to keep their deposit. This has the advantage of making every seat a target seat and national campaigning will have to concentrate on the country as a whole rather than just the �swing� seats. I believe that for supporters of electoral reform to argue about Proportional Representation at this point is a mistake as it is not on the table and it plays into the hands of the Tories who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo and they will muddy the waters as much as possible. The alleged downsides of AV are that it does not address issues of proportionality but neither does the present system. We may get more �hung� parliaments but this is better than a minority riding roughshod over the electorate; also, because we have given an indication of our alternative preferences via AV then the parties would be foolish to ignore that fact when deciding who to go into coalition with. In order to maintain balance I have included the links to the No (http://www.no2av.org/) and Yes (http://www.yestofairervotes.org/) campaigns.

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