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Dr. Mark Pack's avatar

To prove how closely I've read this excellent piece: you have a double "been been" part way through, Rob.

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Rob Ford's avatar

Now corrected! Thanks for spotting - Substack posting does increase appreciation for the wonderful work subeditors do.

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Andrew Kitching's avatar

Whichever of the big parties goes for PR first, will regain the long term initiative. This fragmentation and FPTP is blatantly unfair and wasteful of votes.

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Paul Bivand's avatar

At some point voters may get tired of second-guessing who are the favourite and second favourite in their constituency - which many will get wrong as the MRP's aren't that good. There has been a high chance of parties misreading their vote as their support - likely in most Lib Dem seats the majority of their votes are second or third preference from other parties. Equally, the Green coalition, left, climate activists, NIMBY, looks very wide.

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Dave Hill's avatar

What I want to know, of course, is how this will play out in London. One particularly interesting post-GE map shows the second-placed parties in each of the capital's constituencies. There was a striking split between "traditional" Labour-Tory contests in the western half of Greater London, and an array of different colours in the eastern half, with Greens, Gaza protest Independents and even Reform UK being runners-up.

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