Tactical Voting

In the lead up to the election there has been some discussion about tactical voting: is it appropriate to vote for those you really don't support, as a vote against some other party?

Tactical voting is caused by the First Past The Post system. Proportional Representation would discourage it in different ways, depending on the details of the PR system adopted.

Tactical votes are given for manifestos that aren't really supported, making the murkiness of politics even more opaque. Yet many would prefer this to "wasting" their vote or leaving the door open for a manifesto they clearly oppose.

Interactive Democracy may be operated with FPTP or PR, but voters could then vote for the individual policies they prefer, clarifying, to some degree, what they are voting for or against.

Unequal Votes

Not all votes are worth the same in the UK's current system of representative democracy. According to this ITN report some marginal seats have votes with 500 times the power of those in the safest seats. You can enter your postcode at this site, to find out how valuable your vote is. It may make a difference to your decision to vote tactically.

Under the proposed Interactive Democracy system, even if winning MPs are "first past the post", policies must be approved by the electorate in a referendum where each vote has the same power as every other. This is much more democratic.