I saw this from the inestimable Dave Snowden (and probably blogged about it) back in 2008 but it's interesting to revisit it:
"I have often thought that you should really only vote for people of whom you can have some knowledge. By the time we get to electing European Parliament Members we are so divorced from any knowledge of the individual in question that we are just voting my numbers, or rather tribal loyalties or sound-bites.
Maybe if we had layered delegate elections it would work better? I vote for my district councillors, who vote for members of parliament, who vote for the European Parliament. Each layer has knowledge of the individuals and their capability to hold office.
Come to think of it, that was the way the founding fathers designed the American Constitution. They realised that the President was too powerful an office to be subject to the Tyranny of a mass plebiscite and instead took the approach of an electoral college."
