If we had a voting system of "noncompulsory voting" and FPTP, we would not have governments elected by the swinging voters being bought by the biggest offer in the auction/election and the parties would not have to pander to them.
It would mean that the brain dead and disinterested not having to vote would ignore elections and leave them to people who actually thought about policies.
As for being "stuck with the Greens and other ratbags sticking us with hopeless labour governments" well imagine if we only ever had liberals ?
By now we would have the top 1% and the corporations paying no tax, the small earner paying heaps of tax, no health system for the poor, no safety net for the unemployed and needy and of course the homeless would be still forgotten.
Any party that thought up a leader such as Abbott and tries to foist him on the country , has to be flawed.
Corbyn will be the saviour of UK and we should envy them.
Of course he will romp in at the next election .
I hope that we can find our own "Corbyn" and save us from the inevitable slide to oblivion that will come otherwise.
Now the mining boom is crumbling and with the new TPP and CTT we are lost .
Unemployment is rising and will rocket up as will the housing bubble burst.
Our manufacturing has been exported overseas so that the Corps can make bigger profits.
Now we have an El Nino that will devastate agriculture.
The "New" Prime minister is going to reduce tax even more, raise the GST.
Who will feel that most? Not the very rich. An extra 5% will not make any difference to them but to someone who is struggling to survive it will make all the difference.
Abbott was so proud that he scrapped the carbon tax and made everything cheaper for us. How much dearer will everything be with 15% GST?
My advice is to grow your own food, get a bike, pay off your debt and hope.

Aidan,

The point of the leader of the party is to define the policy direction, and while 2020 is a while away, nearly every political commentator is certain that it will be a wipe out for Labour, as the majority of votes are in the centre not the fringe.

David f,

I don't disagree that the election of Corbyn reflected the wishes of the majority of the members of the Labour party, but it certainly does not reflect the values of anywhere near the central voters, nor the senior party members who know what is needed to be elected.

Poirot,

The next election for Labor leader will probably not include Shorten as he is doing so badly. The last election saw BS just ahead with the caucus vote edging out the rank and file vote. The question is whether this new system will permanently skew the labor leadership to the far left and the political wilderness.

I will also briefly entertain your attempt to divert the thread, The British FPTP tends to favour the major parties, or those with a focus on specific areas. ie. The SNP focused in Scotland did well, but UKIP with low but broad based support fared badly.

Secondly, if the preference system had been used, UKIP and other more conservative candidates would have preferenced the Conservative party, which probably would have led to them getting even more seats than they did. Also notably in 2010 62% of voters did not vote for labor, but they got about 48% of the seats. Thus the premise that voters would have prefered another party in power (ie Labour) is disingenuous.

Finally,

If Labour's reaction to the Tories ditching some of Labour's wasteful projects , that boosted Britain's debt, is to elect a leader that will be rejected by voters, then the Tories should continue.

SM,

"I will also briefly entertain your attempt to divert the thread..."

I was responding to Aidan's valid point.

And if we're talking about Corbyn, why is it diverting the thread to bring up the UK voting system in our responses?

Just pointing out why the likes of Corbyn comes to prominence when the UK is run by a bunch of rabid right-wing toffs who are intent on destroying the social foundations installed after WWII.

Poirot,

"a bunch of rabid right-wing toffs" Really? I can sense the spittle on your monitor. I am afraid that you are so rabidly left wing that the loony Greens would appear centrist.

The reason the toffs are running the country is because the rabid left whinge yobs cocked it up yet again and ran out of other people's money to spend. The result is that the UK is recovering better than just about anyone else in Europe.

As I said before, the elevation of Corbyn to the leadership of Labour is celebrated more by conservatives than by Labour. With JC at the helm Labour will never rule Britain again. And you can put that in the bank.

Shadow,

Britain is financially sovereign. They have unlimited credit.

Gordon Brown was an incompetent chancellor. He wasted a huge amount of money. But he did one thing right: stayed out of the Eurozone. So there was no danger of actually running out of money.

George Osborne was an even more incompetent chancellor. Despite no danger of running out of money, he cut government spending at a time when the economy needed more of it. The British economy still hasn't properly recovered.

If Corbyn leads Labour to a loss at the next election, it won't mean they'll never rule Britain again. They'll be back five years later.

I have read what Corbyn advocates. It appears to me as though he is for a fairer, more compassionate society than the current one in the UK. The Murdoch press and those who go along the views expressed in that press will feel their privileges threatened. It remains to be seen whether the media and Corbyn's opponents will convince the people to vote against their interests.