Should Britain be a multi-party democracy?

The problem with PR though is that insignificant parties can end up with more influence than their weight.

I wouldn't say that at all; they still have to get a decent share of the votes to get influence. PR doesn't give small parties a load of seats simply for existing.

Between the 1950s and around 1990 Scotland roughly mirrored England in that politics was between Labour and the Conservatives with the Lib-Dems having strength in the Highlands but weak elsewhere and the SNP taking the Braveheart vote.

After 1990 support for the Conservatives had dwindled to the point where they now only had pockets of strength here and there and were no longer the broad opposition to Labour that they once were, especially in urban areas and the Central Belt.

In the early 2000s Scottish politics was becoming very localised with a higher proportion of strong seats and fewer marginals than in England.

In 2015 Labour and the Lib-Dems collapsed as the SNP took all but three constituencies.

Since 2015 support for the Conservatives has undergone a revival and now politics is re-aligning towards the SNP vs the Conservatives. It appears that Scottish Conservative supporters have a different mindset to English Conservative supporters in that the Union is their core issue. It's probably a similar mindset to Ulstermen who vote Ulster Unionist or DUP even though their background and demographics are similar to a Labour voter in England rather than a true blue Tory.

Between the 1950s and around 1990 Scotland roughly mirrored England in that politics was between Labour and the Conservatives with the Lib-Dems having strength in the Highlands but weak elsewhere and the SNP taking the Braveheart vote.

After 1990 support for the Conservatives had dwindled to the point where they now only had pockets of strength here and there and were no longer the broad opposition to Labour that they once were, especially in urban areas and the Central Belt.

In the early 2000s Scottish politics was becoming very localised with a higher proportion of strong seats and fewer marginals than in England.

In 2015 Labour and the Lib-Dems collapsed as the SNP took all but three constituencies.

Since 2015 support for the Conservatives has undergone a revival and now politics is re-aligning towards the SNP vs the Conservatives. It appears that Scottish Conservative supporters have a different mindset to English Conservative supporters in that the Union is their core issue. It's probably a similar mindset to Ulstermen who vote Ulster Unionist or DUP even though their background and demographics are similar to a Labour voter in England rather than a true blue Tory.

Labour called the SNP Tartan Tories.

Historically there was a strong trend of right wing opinion in Scottish nationalism (it even dabbled with fascism in the 1930s and 40s). That has been totally eclipsed under Sturgeon. The SNP is a clear left of centre party.

Labour is no longer seen as a resolutely Unionist party.

Labour has therefore bled votes both to the SNP and the Conservatives and the SNP is not a suitable home for those of centre-right opinions who could take or leave independence.

Labour calls the Lib-Dems Tories in sandals and the Green Party Tories on bikes...



That is true but take into account that the Nationalist right is completely different from the capitalist right. The BNP was commonly assumed to be far right but it was actually nationalist right with economic policies inspired by Old Labour. This explains why it attracted people who had traditionally voted Labour and from the C2 and D socioeconomic groups whereas UKIP with Conservative economic policies struggled to attract such people and instead most appealed to people who traditionally voted Conservative from the A to C1 socioeconomic groups.

The SNP is technically a social democrat party with a civic Nationalist flavour.



Ambiguous on the Union and ambiguous on the EU.



SNP is independent Scotland remaining in the EU.

Conservative is the Union and leave the EU.

Lib-Dems are the Union and remaining in the EU.

Nothing seems to represent an independent Scotland and leave the EU.

It's difficult to deny that some European countries are multi-party democracies. The governments and the majority of their citizens accept that this is the case. There are several political parties representing a diverse variety of viewpoints. It's not too difficult to start new parties and in some cases recently established parties have managed to win large numbers of votes and make significant inroads into the political system. They have proportional representation which means that elected representatives generally mirrors popular support and there is less requirement for tactical or negative voting as is the case under FPTP. The media is often more open and friendly towards smaller or recently established parties than the British media is.

In contrast, the US is a totally gridlocked two party system despite the country being more demographically diverse than many European countries are. The ideological difference between the Democrat and Republican parties is much less than that between Labour and the Conservatives in 1950s Britain - the closest we got to a two party state since 1918. Other parties are very small and insignificant in comparison to the Democrat and Republican parties. It could be argued that American politics is not based on ideology or parties representing different viewpoints of the people but on the concept of one party to govern and one party to keep check.

Britain is a halfway house between the two. Between the late 1940s and the late 1990s it was very much a two party system plus the Liberals / Lib-Dems as a protest vote or to represent alternative thought but there were strong ideological differences between Labour and the Conservatives. Since 1997 Britain has moved towards a multi-party democracy with a rise in support and representation for the Green Party, UKIP, and the BNP in England and the SNP in Scotland. There have also been localised alternatives to Lib-Lab-Con such as the Kidderminster Health Concern and Respect Parties.

However, there is a danger than England could become a one-party state in the near future and Scotland a fight between the SNP and the Conservatives.

Should the future of Britain be a multi-party democracy or not?

Furthermore, certain organisations, such as the NHS, would not be subject to disrupting changes as it has been every time the Tories replaced Labour and Labour replaced the Tories.

That's a noteworthy point. Since 1945 FPTP has created cycles in Britain. Union bosses vs corporate bosses and nationalisation vs privatisation depending on whether there is a strong Labour government or a strong Conservative government. This only broke down after 1997 with the formation of the political dead centre. If British politics is dominated by two parties with very different ideologies and policies then cycles could return in the future.

The real issue with the FPTP system is that many speak about changing it but once they get into power, they won't push for PR. This has been the case with the American President. He kept saying how the system is ''rigged'' until he won. The winning leader and their party believe that if they won under the current system, they should keep it to remain in power for as long as possible and that is more likely under the FPTP. Self-interest has been tramping over the greater good for a long long time across the world.

The American President is elected using electoral college which is completely different from FPTP. It is not relevant to British politics.