Dianne Said:

Who do you think should make decisions on the kind of voting system that is used in differ. elections in UK?

We Answered:

Parliament is sovereign and so the decision lies with Parliament. Traditionally the UK has used "first past the post" for Parliamentary and local elections and no government has felt it necessary to change that. However, elected bodies that have been more recently set up, such as regional assemblies and the Scottish Parliament, have been required to use some form of proportional representation. Why this is desirable for those bodies but not for Parliament itself is a good question. The cynical view is that no government is going to propose changing a system that allowed it to be elected.

The only exception is elections for the European Parliament, for which the system is quite rightly laid down by European law. Thus for European elections some system of proportional representation must be used. Most proportional representation systems include a percentage threshold which the vote for a party must exceed for them to get a seat as a result of the election, and for European elections, if a threshold is used, this must not exceed 5% of the vote. This is designed to keep tiny minority parties out.

Beverly Said:

If we do begin to use the new Alternative Voting system in the UK, will it be more easy or more difficult for?

We Answered:

It won't make a lot of difference to be honest. If anything it will make it harder for smaller parties to get seats. People who support minor parties (especially the BNP,) tend to do so passionately, they won't pick up many 2nd or 3rd votes.

What we really need is PR. All other European countries have it and they seem to manage OK. The reason why we don't is that the big 3 parties would lose a lot of seats, and they know it.

The one advantage of AV over FPTP is that it removes the need for tactical voting, so we will at least get a clearer view of people's preferences.

Todd Said:

What is the name of the voting system used in the UK and how does it work?

We Answered:

It's called First Past the Post, FPTP for short.
The country gets split into parts, these are called constituencies, there was 650 constituencies at the last election, but this changes in every election.
So that's Britain split into 650 parts.
For those constituencies someone must stand for it, the person with the most votes gets that seat.
The party who hold the most constituencies wins the election, you need 326 seats to win, if you get 325 you have to form a coalition with another party to make up the seats.

Suzanne Said:

what are the arguments for and against the use of different voting systems in various elections in the UK?

We Answered:

Security and cost.

Claude Said:

Should the Uk system of Government be radically changed?

We Answered:

exactly the british people should be the ones who vote for the prime ministers from a group of would be prime ministers voted on by Parliment