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

[Filuwaúrdjan]

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

[Filuwaúrdjan]

'Hung parliaments' only exist under majoritarian systems. Under PR it's normal for no party to have an overall majority and coalitions are the norm. The 2009 European elections (with an unpopular Labour government having spent the last 12 years in government and the expected europhobia of the great British public) are probably as unrepresentative an election as you could possibly pick for what a general election under PR would look like.

It was also held during the middle of the expenses scandal.

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There would be splinters (of course), but you'd be surprised.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

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.

It's just about possible that the membership here is not entirely reflective of wider trends in British political life. Enthusiasm for proportional representation is a LibDem thing, mostly. Not exclusively, but mostly*. Within the Labour Party most support - and almost all of the enthusiasm - for PR has come from people who are not exactly on the Left (in an LP context anyway). And so on.

*Since the 1980s there's also been a small group of broadly non-partisan (in outlook, anyway) left-wing liberals who have been very much in favour.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Because, in short, we are in a bubble of old fashioned, disproportionate, ill fitting democracy which needs dragging into the 20th century never mind the 21st.

You aren't left wing...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Of course, the patterns talked about (plus a small side pattern of England vs ROB) are very apparent here. Yeah, I know the referendum was on AV, not some (non-pure form of) PR. It affected the margin, but I fail to see a rational argument that it affected the pattern much.

Yes, that was the sort of thing I was half getting at. Electoral reform isn't really a left/right issue at that level.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Of course, historically, there has been something of a correlation between PR and left-wing policy in the world. Of course, correlation does not imply causation with any necessity. 

Sure, sure, but that's not what the question was about.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I believe the Police Commissioner elections are going to use this system too.

urgh