I don't know if it would give us a better government but I see no evidence it would give us a worse one -- and it would at least give millions of people a vote who don't have one at the moment.

As to Italy.... I'm not sure things are really as shambolic as people make out. It depends how you define it. In terms of monolithic parties anything that doesn't give them absolute power is 'shambolic'. And they hate regionalism, unless it's regional assemblies controlled by national parties.

I've been in Italy for a few local elections and they looked fun. People actually felt they had a choice sometimes. How often can you say that here?