Clowns to the left of me, voters to the right

God and regular readers of this blog know that I am hardly to be described as a Conservative voter. And yet I can't help but be concerned at this reflection on the UK elections last year.

Surprisingly little was made of the fact that the Conservatives polled 65,704 more votes than Labour in England, yet ended up with 92 fewer seats.

It's genuinely ironic as the Tories are the defenders par exellence of first-past-the-post voting system. Methinks they really ought to reconsider if they are to make a bid for several terms of office or further opportunites beyond the next electoral defeat. This is not an accidental problem; it's systemic, as the article linked under the header shows. It's even worse in other UK nations.

Why would I want the Tories to do this? Not because I want them to win elections but because I believe in creating conditions for healthier democracy. I happen to think that if the system were changed, then the way that things worked would be affected. I suspect that one of those effects would be that the two-party duopoly would be broken and the party political landscape would change. In fact, it'd make it harder for the Tories to win outright, but also Labour too. We could focus more on policy than posturing ...

In fact one commentator in the Guardian thinks that PR could be the Tories' clause 4 [ie equivalent to the British Labour party's decision to drop clause 4 of their constitution, committing the party to nationalisation].
Make My Vote Count: Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right: the Conservatives and the electoral system: a summary: