Re: @dogged
@ Graham Marsden
Dear Graham,
You really do not understand how the FPTP system works do you. You do, indeed, get exactly who *you* vote for. *You* vote for a person to represent you and your electorate in parliament.
Presumably *you* have a choice of candidates from whom to choose, and you make your selection accordingly, as does every other voter in your electorate. The candidate with the most votes gets elected.
Simples.
A 'safe' seat is 'safe' only because the majority of voters vote for the person (or party) who best represents their views - consistently. If people are really concerned about safe seats then it simply requires more voters to cast their vote for an alternative candidate, or perhaps even better, get yourself involved in politics in your electorate influence your choice of candidate that way. I fail to understand what is difficult about that. If you really want to vote for the Monster Raving Loony Party, UKIP or some other party, (it's obviously not one of the 3 major(ish) parties) again that is your choice but don't be surprised that everyone else maybe doesn't share you view.
Now whether you consider that the candidate for whom *you* (as in 'the electorate') voted really DOES represent your views is a different matter altogether and can be rectified at the next election - if you can persuade enough of your fellow voters to your point of view.
The national total of votes for a particular party is irrelevant. It only matters at electorate level.
It seems to me that you are complaining about a parliamentary democracy because the party of your choice did not gain sufficient candidates elected to gain the front benches, i.e. control of parliament
As a final word, be very careful of what you wish for. It just might turn out to be far worse than FPTP depending on what form of voting system that gets chosen - and STILL may not be what you would like to see.
BTW I understand that majority parties ram through legislation that is not part of a manifesto, but maybe that is a separate problem altogether. A coalition does not necessarily mean that unwanted legislation gets thwarted. Coalitions mean compromises so the LibDems manifesto pledges get watered down during the negotiations. Similarly the majority coalition party has to make some compromises as well, (although possibly not as many) but if both parties agree on certain legislation then it will go through - no matter what you may think.