Re: "Shy Tories"
STV isn't madness - STV with multi-member constituencies (6 or 7 MPs) gives pretty good proportionality while keeping out the more rabid nutters, and also tends to produce MPs who are more representative of the population: if a party has four candidates in a constituency they can't ALL be white middle-aged males, and the voters decide then which one they prefer, rather than the local party executive. Also keeps the link with a geographical area, and avoids the party list nastiness.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
