Totally agree with you Polaris. We may be having Av soon. Dont think it will make things any worse. Worth
a try. John.
FWIW, I am more cautious. Changing the voting system is a fundamental change, and we shouldn't be looking at what it will do for current politics - rather we should consider what effect it will have over 50 years or more.
Our current system rewards the person who gets the highest single score. That produces MPs who hold specific positions and try to persuade voters that those positions are right - it encourages argument and debate. It tends to produce the classic British strong single-issue confrontational government - bringing in policies like the Welfare State or the mine closures, with the pendulum swinging the other way after about 10 years.
The proposed system rewards the person who gets over 50% of first and second choice votes. This will produce politicians who avoid any clear-cut positions and go for the middle ground, so as to get votes from all sides. It is likely to encourage consensus politics, where political decisions are taken in committee after a government is elected, rather than having controversial policies decided at General Elections. I suspect it is likely to favour the growth of one central party which will retain power for 30-40 years or longer, as is more common on the Continent. It will certainly work against independents and single-issue MPs. It will also add further encouragement for MPs to say things they do not believe in, while angling for second-choice votes.
And, of course, it will produce odd results, where someone who came second or third on the first count then comes first in the second or subsequent counts...