There is no such thing as an “objective” report. If humans were capable of objectivity we’d have no need for the checks and balances that are necessary in any functioning democracy. It’s better to recognise that than to quest for objectivity and create a system which either uses rather crass minimal rules to achieve them (as at present) or some bizarre Byzantine system which would almost certainly render reports unreadable and of no interest to constituents whatsoever.

MPs are politicians performing political roles. Deal with it.

As for what the MPs and their rivals do with the space is up to them. I would guess that parties would do their best to combine content with getting their message across. Competition would be intense.

Tim, you are absolutely correct and if I hadn’t had one foot out of the door when I was struggling to finish the post I would have covered this. The number I was playing with was something like 10% of the popular vote. That would relatively tough for a fourth placed candidate to achieve but would give them an incentive to campaign nonetheless. I would guess that a significant number of reports would end up having contributions from three parties.