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Important points here for those who defend first past the post as a system that is said, generally, to deliver moderate but decisive government (the “it isn’t fair but it works thesis”).
That thesis depends, critically, on certain factual hypotheses.
1. That you don’t have regionally strong third parties forming a block that makes it hard for either of the main parties to win a working majority. (No longer true: Scotland.)
2. That a reasonably large number of seats are genuinely competitive. (No longer true: marginals are now a relative rarity.)
3. That the two parties tend to pull to the middle to get a winning coalition. (No longer true: see (2): and also control of leadership by unrepresentative party memberships.)
And if the “isn’t fair but it works” thesis ceases to be true as a matter of fact, there really isn’t much left to be said for FPTP: apart, of course, from cynical party advantage.
