Wayne: I think you're confusing Independents and Minor Parties, such as the Greens, UKIP or the BNP. The example of Dr Taylor was chosen precisely because he was a true Independent: a local candidate standing on a local issue unconnected to a national party. Although he is unusual in recent times at the parliamentary level there are many examples of Independents being elected to local councils under first-past-the-post. A system of proportional representation would almost certainly help minor parties with thinly spread support across the country, providing they exceed whatever threshold is required to get elected. The Euro and London elections in the UK are a good example of this - and Israel is an example of what happens when this is carried to the extreme of a national list PR system. The Save Kidderminster Hospital Party, however, gaining votes only from people in Kidderminster, would never cross that threshold once the election is run on an area greater than one constituency. You cannot aggregate the votes of Independents precisely because each one is a separate and independent candidate. A form of preferential/transferable voting even at the single constituency level would harm an Independent unless he/she was already one of the highest first-preference candidates (and so avoided early elimination) - which puts them in no better a position than they are already under first-past-the-post.

It is not true that independents cannot be elected under proportional representation. Either an additional member system or a single transferable vote system would be better for independents than first-past-the-post. How many independents have you elected lately?