Why is the current voting system in the UK flawed and how can it be improved?

[Astronuc]

I'm going to have to disagree with you here, Danger. The "speed trap" thingy is mostly myth, like an urban legend. I think this because I drive like a crazed spider monkey and I've never (knock on wood!) had a speeding ticket.

Granted I've lived most of my life on the West coast - California, Alaska, Oregon, and Washington. But I've traveled quite a lot and these "traps" are talked about vaguely everywhere, but only vaguely.

As far as organized crime or big business owning jurisdictions -- I've never seen that or heard of it.

An example in Florida.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-towns-notorious-speed-traps-under-investigation/

I remember a racket in a town near Houston (1970s into early 1980s) where the local sheriff or constable could sit in his car and change the traffic light to red at will. He then wrote tickets for people running the red light. I wish I could find that documented in the newspaper.

 

[collinsmark]

I'm going to have to disagree with you here, Danger. The "speed trap" thingy is mostly myth, like an urban legend.

I can confirm Danger's claim on this one.

You might not have experienced such a speed trap being on the west coast.

When I first moved to the west coast I was surprised that everybody speeds. And I mean everybody, assuming the freeway isn't clogged up at the given time (it can be a speedway, but also a parking lot, depending on the time of day). If it's not clogged up, the general flow of relatively crowded traffic is all moving at roughly 10-15 mph (~16-24 kph) above the speed limit. You actually pose a bigger safety hazard if you're not speeding. So yeah, it's rare to get speeding tickets on the west coast (just don't speed near a school crosswalk, or get overzealous about it).

Go to the midwest USA on the other hand and you will see police officers hiding behind billboards with their radar guns trying to catch anybody they can. And while they may hide at the time, they are not secretive that they do such things. They're quite upfront about the habit and warn residents not to speed because there could be police officer hiding in wait. And if the general flow of traffic is speeding -- that's not an excuse. They will just pick off speeders at random.

 

[SteamKing]

There was a famous speed trap along Louisiana Highway 1, 'America's Energy Highway', which is the only way in or out of Port Fourchon by road. Port Fourchon is important because a lot of vessels dock there to service and supply the rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, so a lot of personnel and goods are traveling thru the little towns along this road. One town, Golden Meadow, was a particularly notorious sped trap, even into the 1990s:

http://www.speedtrap.org/city/4115/Golden Meadow

It got so bad at Golden Meadow and several other towns that a state legislator introduced a bill in the spring of 2014 which would have forced any municipality which derived more than 50 percent of revenue for city government by collecting fines from issuing traffic citations to post a sign at the city limits cautioning motorists they were entering a speed trap:

http://theadvocate.com/news/legislature/8717695-123/bill-would-label-some-towns

This bill, HB961, failed to pass when brought up for a vote:

http://legiscan.com/LA/votes/HB961/2014

 

[nikkkom]

I'm not going to try to work out a specific mechanism

Well, the history of last few centuries did develop a mechanism that works.

It's free press, allowing journalists to conduct investigations and publish their results without fear that they can be thrown to jail.
And existence of legal political opposition, which has a selfish interest in conducting such investigations and publishing results.

This system does work. I don't understand your dislike towards it. I do understand frustration against people in power being incapable of staying honest without this threat.

 

[jtbell]

Go to the midwest USA on the other hand and you will see police officers hiding behind billboards with their radar guns trying to catch anybody they can.

Or the southeast, e.g. Waldo and Hampton, Florida, a few miles apart on US 301.

 

[jtbell]

Getting back to the original topic of this thread... after a recount, our county board of elections has declared a tie vote in a school board contest in last week's election. There will be a re-vote next week.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Late to the party here; I always vote but it can be immensely frustrating thanks to the voting system we have in the UK. We have the fairly common first past the post system which means that the breakdown of MPs poorly reflects the breakdown in votes. At the last general election I was living in an area that was pretty much split between the two major parties, voting for anyone else would be a wasted vote so I was forced to vote tactically. Recently there were local council elections which were somewhat better as you could vote for multiple candidates but it's still not ideal.

What I'd like to see is a swap to STV or similar. A voting system that retains local voting but creates a national parliament that is more reflective of the overall votes and takes away the need for tactical voting. For those interested here is a good, simple video introducing the problems with FPTP and here is one by the same person on how STV works.