First past the post, AV and proportional representation (on UK referendum)

As Britain votes in the referendum on whether to change her 'first-past-the-post' system, I am republishing this last year's post from 'Running with Dogs' blog.

 

9,4 km - 59.12 min - chilly wind, had to put on running gloves, but still in shorts (hell, it's springtime!), very pleasant once inside a sheltered sunk mud track. 

I  don't understand why they all cry for proportional representation. How can it be fair?

Let's say I run a race and am first past the post. I win, take the medal and the prize money, if there is any. They photograph me, shake my hand and I feel that it's fair. I worked hard, I trained and thought about my policies and tactics - and it worked, I won, I am at the head of the runners.

Then someone says, 'Hang on, it's not fair, we also ran, we should be represented and we want our share of the prize'. By what ridiculuos reason other runners and the public should decide that that argument makes any sense?

All right, dogs, I know, you ran with me and you deserve your share of my chicken soup with croutons, proportionally divided.

Onomatopoetry: Running on Mud

Sounds, you can describe them in many different ways. Words imitating sounds are called onomatopoeia (onomatopoeic or onomatopoetic). Here is a little four-liner, I heard while running with my dogs through silence.

And there we go without stopping in the woods on a winter evening, dogs going

chompety-tap, tappety-chomp, 
chomp-chomp, tap-tap

and me going

chompety-clop, cloppety-chomp, 
chomp-chomp, clop-clop. 

The full post about this is here, on my 'Running with dogs' blog.