Election thoughts
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I enjoy politics, and I especially enjoy how these folks portray politics: Yes, Minister; In the loop; Daily Show; Colbert Report. But in discussing it with my friends over the weekend, I found out a shocking lack of knowledge of these rather basic facts. So I’ve knocked up a little table to show how messed up the current electoral system is.
| votes | seats | Seats to Votes % | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | % | last election | n | % | last election | ||
| Conservative | 10.7m | 36% | +2m | 306 | 47% | +97 | +11% |
| Labour | 8.7m | 28% | -0.8m | 258 | 40% | -91 | +12% |
| Liberal Democrats | 6.9m | 23% | +1.1m | 57 | 8% | -6 | -15% |
| DUP | 0.16m | 0.6% | -0.8m | 8 | 1.3% | +1 | +0.6% |
| SNP | 0.49m | 1.7% | +0.8 | 6 | 1% | 0 | -0.7% |
In my opinion, a hung parliament is a good thing. It shows that not all is right with the country and the system in which we elect our officials. I’m not sure which way this is going to go but a few of these facts amaze me:
- Liberal Democrats gained 1 million more votes in this election, but somehow ened up with less seats.
- Liberal Democrats gained a quarter of the votes cast in this election but only get 8% of seats
- SNP gained 3 times as many votes as the DUP, but the DUP gained 2 more seats.
- If Labour and the Liberal Democrats make a coalition, even though they will have more than 50% of the country’s votes, they still won’t have enough seats in parliament to take power.
Is it just me that thinks that is just mental. In what sort of system does getting more than half of all votes not count as winning?
oh right, a vote run by Automattic ;-)
(I had to keep it computer related somehow.)
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