For the first time in my life - I agree with Nigel Farage - Mark Oaten

Based on the current polls Reform look set to get around 16% of the votes but will end up with zero seats in Parliament. I am no fan of Farage and his party but that is simply undemocratic. Likewise, the Greens may poll 8 % cent and end up with 1 seat. And my party, the Lib Dems have traditionally polled more votes nationally and not seen it reflected in seats in Parliament. Ironically this time by brutal targeting of resources in a small number of seats they may end up with a national share of around 10 per cent and deliver the 60 plus seats they should have- but that’s no thanks to the electoral system.

It sounds a bit nerdy to discuss Proportional Representation especially when what matters to people this election is money and the NHS. But it does matter. What’s the point in voting in an election if parties representing around a third of votes cast will get just a handful of seats in Westminster. If our parliament is to be trusted and relevant it absolutely has to reflect how people vote.

Those that argues against PR claim it leads to weak government – well that’s absolutely what we’ve had for the last decade. Opponents say it’s not democratic as it leads to deals behind closed doors to form Governments between parties. Well hang on a minute we have just had 4 Tory Prime Ministers all selected by a small number of Conservative party members.

The other big argument against is that it leads to Coalition Governments. That’s certainly true across most of mainland Europe and on the whole these governments have been effective. On the very the rare occasions we had coalition governments I don’t think it did too badly. The Lib Dems were punished as the junior party in the Cameron/Clegg coalition- but when you look at its relative success compared to what followed, history may look more favourably on the partnership.

I don’t favour a PR system that just has party lists and voters can’t select who they want as a MP. It’s a vital part of our politics that a constituency MP is known and works hard in the community. But creating a top up list to bring balance into parliament is easily done. As for the threat of small barmy and fringe parties being represented in Parliament- a simple threshold of achieving 5% of the vote share before a seat is given should overcome that concern.

We need to modernise our politics – change stuffy old Westminster, bring our democracy kicking and screaming into the modern world and one part of that is how we vote.

We have the technology to do so much these days so why are we still walking into a village hall on a Thursday and using a pencil to place one cross against a name knowing that in most cases it won’t end up counting for anything? Nigel is right (agh) its time to make peoples vote actually count, if we don’t disillusion and protest will only grow and that’s a huge threat to democracy.