PR and the BNP.

This is a comment I left on this Mark Wadsworth post.

"Aren't we missing something when we criticise PR for allowing the BNP a seat or two? The real problem is the BNP getting 10% of the vote in the first place. This is primarily because people believe the anti-immigration crap written in the Tory tabloids.

The Tories stir up racial hatred to split the working class vote off from Labour because this is worth doing under first-past-the-post as the seats your party win is not just determined by your own vote, but by your main opponents vote.

So clever and subtle negative campaigning becomes paramount to splinter the opposition vote while appearing above the fray yourselves to hold on to your own voters.

Under PR this sort of campaign would be of little help to the Tories as their number of seats would only be determined by their own voteshare.

This is why the countries with a problem with the far-right tend not to be PR countries but France and the UK that predominantly use first-past-the-post systems".