In the German model ,half the seats are contested on a first past the post system where the candidate with the largest no of votes in a particular seat is elected. In these seats the voter picks a particular candidate.

Thank you for the correction.

Many European parliaments (not Britain's, but, say, Germany's) allocate seats according to the proportion of total votes won by each party in the nationwide balloting.

Not quite accurate.

In the German model ,half the seats are contested on a first past the post system where the candidate with the largest no of votes in a particular seat is elected. In these seats the voter picks a particular candidate.

The other half are allocated via party lists in each lander according to the percent of the party votes received in each lander. For these seats the voter has a 2nd vote which they use to vote for a party rather than a candidate.

So in 2005 the greens won 1 seat in the first group but ended up with approx 8% of the seats in total matching their 8% of the total party list vote.

Ours is only winner take all in executive positions, not legislative assemblies.

For individual seats, ours is winner-take-all. Many European parliaments (not Britain's, but, say, Germany's) allocate seats according to the proportion of total votes won by each party in the nationwide balloting. Thus the Greens were able to get into the Bundestag years ago merely by receiving at least 5% of the vote, even if no locality ever voted a majority for them.

On the other hand, even if a particular locality does vote a majority for a given minor party, if it doesn't get at least 5% of the national vote it won't get any seats.

Good point and even more so in Europe. With so many kooky parties the press can go ape with this.

Ours is only winner take all in executive positions, not legislative assemblies.