This article in the Independent highlights the report from the electoral commission on the recent local elections. It specifically talks about Kingston and the anomaly that despite the Conservatives "winning" the election on votes cast the Lib Dems gained more seats and a majority.
Their natural conclusion is we should have PR. It seems such a simple argument but I am not convinced.
The reality is that one of th biggest distorting factors is the boundary changes of 2002. We could debate where the boundaries now go and how stupid some of them are but the more important facet is the distribution of seats. Kingston used to be composed of both 2 and 3 Councillor wards. The Electoral Commission applied the principle that all wards should be of similar size and therefore all have three Councillors. This means that in terms of the total outcome of seats won large distortions can occur. Its impossible to predict what might have happened under the old boundaries becuase they changed so much. But clearly winning and losing two seat wards is less distorting than winning and losing three seat wards.
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They wrote about this in the Informer as well this week. The contrast between Howard Jones' comment and Derek Osbourne's is interesting: Jones is pretty accepting of the situation despite the fact that the Conservatives lost out, whilst Osbourne reacts with vitriol, calling the report 'inane.' I wonder which party Osbourne belongs to?!
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