My issue with proportional representation is that people vote, largely, based on party/leader rather than local MP or local issues. PR makes coalition far more likely. Now in theory the idea that a party that won 40% of the vote joining up with party that won 20% of the vote to form government that represents 60% of the electorate sound great.
In reality what happens is that the two parties hash out a post-election manifesto 'deal', like in 2010, that nobody ever voted for. So we end up with a government elected by a greater percentage share of the population but with a set of policies not one single vote was cast for.
Not sure how that's democratic. "Thanks for the votes, now we're off to discuss behind closed doors what policies we're deciding retrospectively you voted for."
That isn't to say FPTP isn't flawed either.
Kinda, but then again, the majority of the UK right now do not vote for the party in power. In the case of 2005 General Election, you almost have a super-majority against the Labour Government. And yet they somehow have power for another 5 years, where is the logic in that?
So under FPTP you have the vast majority of people opposing the government we get, under STV/PR we get a coalition where no one gets the government we get?
Democracy is an experiment. Politics is a game. There is no perfect system, but if there was one, it wouldn't give one party complete power for 5 years, and then another party complete power too. People would vote for the party that represented them and then parliament would vote through the laws that the majority of MPS (and therefore the country) supported.
People wanted a vote on Brexit (2015: Conservatives: 36.8%, UKIP: 12.7%). Then it turned out they wanted to leave the EU (52% vs 48%). Democracy works.
If you look at what the Tories and Lib Dems got through, some of it was in both parties manifestos (or both parties were happy to do it)
- Reduce the deficit
- Increase the Personal Allowance.
- Cap pay rate rises for public workers (really)
- Scrapping ID cards
- Royal Mail privatisation
- Reform NHS Dentistry (both supported this, where was it???)
- Build houses
Etc
Probably we didn't get the government we wanted, but maybe we got the one we deserved