Single transferable vote

So Roy Jenkins had a commission that came out with the idea of AV+.

So it rejected STV, the system that Polly suggested, because of the size of the constituencies.

There'd be 350,000 people in a constituency.

So many candidates, hard for people to choose.

So a lot will depend on coming up with, you know, biting the bullet to create a system that is representative enough to be worth the change, that doesn't scare the living Jesus out of people south of the border who haven't been adjusted in any way at all to proportional representation.

Because all the new governments, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, have all got various forms of STV, you know, some sort of alternative vote system, We use quite a number of systems, so you've had to have your head around it.

England's still using first-past-the-post for local elections, I think now, alone in Europe.

So it's going to be a, you know, if everyone's got this, but who's my constituency MP? I don't understand this.

Well, I think you'd said at the very start of our exchange that you think there should be two unionist parties or that's probably the optimal outcome.

Is that what you and Gavin are talking about? Is that the ultimate end for this? Or what does cooperation look like in an STV election? I can see in a Westminster election where one unionist stands in each constituency, cooperation seems pretty easy there.

Although, you know, you have to see, does that add to the vote? Does that secure votes? Does that secure seats? So you'd have to look at that.

But in an STV election, surely cooperation is a merger?

Yeah, look, I need to put some expectations and reality around these talks.

I will say this.

Tim mentioned that, you know, Westminster election is obviously where the tactical voting can come into play.

and where agreements with other parties can really work most effectively.

And okay, they are not as proportional as most normal European parliaments.

But I mean, there are a heck of a lot more especially Wales after the last election when they did move to STV.

So they've got into the business, which has kind of been one of the building blocks of Nordic success, is that they've got into the business of learning to have to sort of deal with one another.

Now, not very well.

So there's a right-wing block in at the moment that hasn't been involving the far right, but looked like it would have to do that if it won and it relied on their support, as everybody thought would happen.

And then there's a left-leaning block, and it looks at the moment that they are one to three seats ahead.

It's a slow counting process because of the transfers involved in a STV system.

So it looks like they've got overseas ballots because if you're a Swede, you can vote wherever you are type thing.

The Scottish Parliament uses the additional member system, the Welsh Parliament uses a list-based proportional representation system, and Northern Ireland uses the single transferable vote.

Scotland also uses the single transferable vote? No, it uses the...

Yeah, but AMS, doesn't it use STV within the AMS? Okay.

I recently made a whole episode of Slow News Day about different voting systems and comparing and ranking them.

Legitimately, one of the most controversial things I've ever made, it turns out, there was a Reddit post about it and we got nine emails.

Come in, Liam.

Yeah, but also just comparing first-past-the-post in the UK and STV in Australia, which is biased against, you know, we have proportional representation.

We're becoming a lot more European, not only in our system, I think, but also our voting habits.

The loyalties that are the hallmark of the FPP system are breaking down.