AV is far better then the so-called "democracy" we have now as currently people who live in safe seats feel disenfranchised so don't bother to vote.

+1

Give them some idea of the day to day problems faced by the general populace.

Osborne's a millionaire. Has been since the day he was born. Whatever 'job' he might have done between strolling out of Oxbridge and a nice safe seat, it wouldn't have given him any perspective at all of the problems faced by the 'general populace'.

To quote one modern piece of prose..

Must they? Surely there must be some MPs who ran for office, (if you'll pardon the Americanism) because they believe they can make a positive contribution and actually make a difference... mustn't there?

*looks around in a slightly worried manner*

Yes, I really do believe that they must be.

Mark

Tony Benn is a good example of such high minded motives. I have no problems with people doing so as long as they do not personally benefit from the decisions that they make, such as cushy bank jobs after they leave office.

Course what a lot of people forget is Tony Benn is also from a very privileged background. His father was Viscount of Stansgate. He went to Winchester school then new College Oxford. The major factors I assume in his political beliefs is his father was a liberal peer who defected to labour so his obvious role model is someone who didn't toe the party line and he himself served in the RAF during WWII, so you'd assume he does have some idea about how the world outside the political bubble works.

Jon

I don't like it and I don't want it. I fear if this is brought in it will be decades before government looks at proper PR again.

As much as I would like it to be different, they don't really have much to complain about , do they?

Why? Their votes are useless. Any form of PR or AV might actually make voting worthwhile.

To emphasise, their vote may mean little or nothing, but to not vote means they have nothing to complain about.

Personally I'm for a true democracy where everybody has a vote on every issue, if only a system could be introduced that was secure.

Extra points if they've been made redundant and had to re-enter the jobs market.
Same goes if they've had to spend 4 hours in a hospital waiting room with a sick child.
If that doesn't bring them down to earth, I don't know what will.

Yes a minimun number of points needed to become an MP. With points deducted for family wealth and peerages.

Then you're just reversing the current system. It seems those "of privilege" are the current crop of politician - on the whole.
The trouble with having the "everyman" running the country is that those with the money wouldn't want that, as it's not in their best interests (as I'm sure they'd see it that way).
It's not good to have a heavy skew either one way or the other. What's needed is a balanced parliament.

Mark

PR is silly.
A) you'd never get a majority government.
B) extremists like the bnp may actually get a seat.