Why are British left-wingers so enthusiastic about proportional representation?

[tpfkaw]

Given http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament_election,_2009_%28United_Kingdom%29

[tpfkaw]

I get that Euro elections are different from regular but it's at least something of an indicator that PR hardly is the answer to their prayers.  I get that most parliamentary Labour members don't favor PR, though it seemed like most of the ones on Atlas did during the AV thingy.  In any case, I fail to see why they'd be so in favor of something that'd most likely lead to BNP and UKIP gaining representation in a perpetually-hung parliament in which the Lib Dems (or even the BNP) would always hold the balance of power.

[tpfkaw]

They aren't. You're confusing 'left-wing' with 'middle class liberal' and there's a fairly large difference.

Just going from the first few pages of the AV thread:

LOL no. It's not PR and the Liberals shouldn't be rewarded for their poor governmental skills.

No. It's not my preferred alternative to FPTP (which is actually the Scottish system) and I really, really don't like a system that would risk the Lib Dems holding the balance of power on a permanent basis.

I was going to vote no*, but I think I'll take a leaf out of some of the posters in this thread and just spoil my ballot with a statement making clear I wanted PR on there.

etc.

[tpfkaw]

UKIP would never get over 5% in a real election I suppose, and the BNP wouldn't get 5% either. A more polished far-right outfit might get there, obviously, and if it could draw in the more unsavoury aspects of the Tory right, who knows where the limit for such a party would be?

The BNP probably polled around their "natural" base of support in '09 - single-issue Euroskeptic voters would've gone with UKIP, not BNP.  UKIP got 3.1% in the 2010 general election under FPTP - it's a virtual certainty they'd poll above 5%.

[tpfkaw]

They aren't. You're confusing 'left-wing' with 'middle class liberal' and there's a fairly large difference.

Just going from the first few pages of the AV thread:

LOL no. It's not PR and the Liberals shouldn't be rewarded for their poor governmental skills.

No. It's not my preferred alternative to FPTP (which is actually the Scottish system) and I really, really don't like a system that would risk the Lib Dems holding the balance of power on a permanent basis.

I was going to vote no*, but I think I'll take a leaf out of some of the posters in this thread and just spoil my ballot with a statement making clear I wanted PR on there.

etc.

Again, are you implying that the Lib Dems are left-wing?

I believe all those people were Labour supporters.  The Lib Dems are most reminiscent of "centrist" parties like the Canadian Liberals or the old Italian Christian Democracy, with no coherent ideology (actually, the 'right-wing' Lib Dems have a relatively coherent ideology, though most of the party doesn't).