Voting is broken

The UK doesn't have a real democracy. In this video, I explain why first past the post is a broken voting system that produces governments nobody voted for — and why proportional representation is the only serious alternative. In the 2024 general election, Labour won 411 seats in the House of Commons — a massive majority. But Labour received just 33% of the national vote. Only 20% of all registered voters actually voted Labour. That means 80% of the electorate did not choose the party now governing the country with near-absolute power. This is not a new problem. First past the post has always distorted UK elections. Most MPs are elected by a minority of voters in their own constituency. Millions of votes are wasted every election — people who vote for losing candidates get no representation at all. The Liberal Democrats have received millions of votes nationally for decades and received almost no seats. Reform UK has significant national support but a tiny number of MPs. The result is adversarial politics, short-term thinking, dramatic policy swings between governments, and an electorate that increasingly does not trust the system. Voter turnout falls because people know their vote doesn't count. And when people stop believing in democracy, dangerous alternatives start to look attractive. Proportional representation fixes this. Under PR, seats in parliament would broadly reflect votes cast. Fewer votes would be wasted. Coalition governments would be the norm, requiring cooperation and compromise rather than winner-take-all confrontation. Long-term policy would become possible because successive governments would share broad agreement rather than tearing up everything their predecessor did. Electoral reform is not a technical question — it is a democratic necessity. If we believe in representative government, we need a system that actually represents the people who vote. In this video we cover: - Why first past the post produces governments nobody voted for - How Labour won a massive majority with just 20% of registered voters - Why millions of votes are wasted every UK election - How FPTP encourages adversarial politics and short-term thinking - Why proportional representation would transform British politics - The case for electoral reform as a democratic necessity