Electoral reform is back on the British political agenda, which is good. There are some very important things that the British state simply cannot do properly because of its present electoral system, and which it would stand a good chance of doing if it had a well-designed proportional representation (PR) system.
The British state is very bad at providing for a workforce adequately skilled for the twenty-first century, establishing a pension system that doesn’t take your retirement funds for a flutter at the casino-on-Thames, or facing up to big environmental problems like climate change.
For the rest of the story, see my posting at openDemocracy.net, or the longer version, with references here.)