WHY do we keep the first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system? Each general election showcases how silly it is. Perhaps we’re addicted to the drama of it: to the names Portillo and Balls, we can now add Robertson, Salmond and Clegg who provided the OMG moments on Thursday night.

Leaving aside the excitement, the ritual public humiliation of our former prophets is not perhaps the best reason to cling to such an absurd, undemocratic system.

Based on vote share, under a fair system, Scotland’s Westminster representation would look like this today: the SNP would have 22 seats, eight short of a majority; the Conservatives 17; Labour on 16; and the Liberal Democrats four.

Does it matter that Labour has fewer than half the seats and the SNP 13 more than its vote share entitle it to? Does it matter, that UK-wide, the Tories should have 276 seats, not 318?

Yes, it does. Theresa May is clinging to power with DUP support to pursue her Brexit strategy even though more than half of the electorate backed parties that favour retaining the benefits of the single market. If she’d had 276 seats, no deal would even have been possible.

Nicola Sturgeon announced 10 days ago that winning a majority of Scottish seats would reinforce her mandate for a second independence referendum. She has won that majority but 63 per cent of voters have backed parties against a second referendum.

Ms Sturgeon has conceded that her referendum plan contributed to SNP losses, and has yet to reaffirm her commitment to it, but insists the SNP has “won” in Scotland (on 37 per cent of the vote). That’s only true if you believe in FPTP, which she doesn’t.

The electoral system produces fairground mirror distortions of voter intentions that skew our understanding of politics. The Tories’ Scottish resurgence looks much more impressive than it is because they should have had between nine and 13 seats for the past 20 years.

The close results on Thursday amplify the system’s faults. Two of the SNP’s seats were won by a combined majority of 23 votes – Perth and North Perthshire by 21 and Fife North East by two. The LibDems, Tories and Labour polled a Schiehallion of votes in the two seats but, under FPTP, winner takes all.

British voters rejected electoral reform in 2010 but a lot has changed since. With fairer voting systems for Holyrood, Cardiff, and at local and European elections, people have got used to the feeling that their vote counts. The Holyrood and local systems also show you can improve proportionality while retaining a constituency link.

The LibDems, the SNP and Greens support voting reform and Labour is reaching the point where self-interest and democratic principle are converging. This election ought to build support for reform.

The result will have far-reaching consequences, for Brexit, for independence, perhaps for Alex Salmond’s TV career (not Strictly; with that voice, it’s got to be Britain’s Got Talent). Change is in the air and the voting system should not escape it.