2015 UK Election Thread

Garson007 said:
That's nice. Looking to a text from the 13th century for modern politics.

FPTP only made sense before the advent of distance communication and travel.
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The voters will decide when and if to change. And they made a choice in 2010. Deal with it :)
 
Total no. of votes cast across the UK for SNP = 1.5 million.
Total no. of votes cast in Scotland across all parties = 2.9 million.
Total no. of votes cast across the UK for UKIP = 3.8 million.

More people than the entirety of Scotland voted UKIP, yet the SNP ends up with 52 seats and the UKIP ends up with... 1. If that doesn't show that first-past-the-post "democracy" is broken, I don't know what does.
 
Garson007 said:
That's nice. Looking to a text from the 13th century for modern politics.

FPTP only made sense before the advent of distance communication and travel.
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I think you are overlooking the point of a constituency. MPs for example hold surgery in their constituencys often and many even have an office on a high street in a town there. It is quite normal for a person to raise an issue with their MP face to face, and for an MP to take up matters in Parliament if the issue warrants it.

Beats the schyte out of supporting our free loaders if you ask me.
 
Dave123 said:
FTFY

Just to make Space a Chief even unhappier ;).

Looks like they have only got the one seat.
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Dude I'm not unhappy. I want the UK to stay in the EU. :)

Why do people assume I like the UKIP. I don't. But if 15% of the people vote for them then surely that means something.
 
The_Assimilator said:
Total no. of votes cast across the UK for SNP = 1.5 million.
Total no. of votes cast in Scotland across all parties = 2.9 million.
Total no. of votes cast across the UK for UKIP = 3.8 million.

More people than the entirety of Scotland voted UKIP, yet the SNP ends up with 52 seats and the UKIP ends up with... 1. If that doesn't show that first-past-the-post "democracy" is broken, I don't know what does.
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Shhhhh! It makes MPs more responsive to the people. Like how we have local councilors and talk to them everyday. Most people to lots of research before a local election, and no one simply votes for the candidate next to their party of choice.

FPTP as definately doesn't lead to a two party system and isn't open to gerrymandering. :p

The DA were nuts for wanting this in SA. Still not as crazy as UKIP. Though their voters have gotten a raw deal.
 
The_Assimilator said:
Total no. of votes cast across the UK for SNP = 1.5 million.
Total no. of votes cast in Scotland across all parties = 2.9 million.
Total no. of votes cast across the UK for UKIP = 3.8 million.

More people than the entirety of Scotland voted UKIP, yet the SNP ends up with 52 seats and the UKIP ends up with... 1. If that doesn't show that first-past-the-post "democracy" is broken, I don't know what does.
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Lol, nice try.

UKIP stood in 624 seats. The SNP stood in 59.
 
Scotland = 4.2 million people = 59 seats = ~71 000 votes per seat (yes I know it's not like that as constituencies are not exactly the same size).
 
Space_Chief said:
Dude I'm not unhappy. I want the UK to stay in the EU. :)

Why do people assume I like the UKIP. I don't. But if 15% of the people vote for them then surely that means something.
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I also want the UK to stay in the EU. However, I am confident that the majority of the UK do as well and therefore I believe a referendum should be held so that we can but the question behind us.

UKIP are a single issue party. An in-out EU referendum. The Tories have promised this. The only difference between the 2 on this is how soon to have it. Cameron wants to first negotiate new terms with the EU. I think thats fair.

As for the electoral system, UK voters rejected a change in 2010 by a large margin. That it wasnt exactly your version that was on the table is irrelevant. Its the version that was on the table. If there was a need for a different version, then the Lib Dems, UKIP, Labour etc had the chance to spell it out.
 
Chris said:
Still doesnt change the injustice that ukip has only one MP with 3.5 million votes. You can spin it anyway you like...
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Chris said:
Scotland = 4.2 million people = 59 seats = ~71 000 votes per seat (yes I know it's not like that as constituencies are not exactly the same size).
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That's the wonderful thing about democracy. The Lib Dems for example have been pushing PR for years and I'd guess it's not popular because the constituency MP is an essential part of life for many.

FPTP works for the electorate and they accept it. The only one's pushing for it are the parties who are paddling in the shallow end.
 
Spizz said:
That's the wonderful thing about democracy. The Lib Dems for example have been pushing PR for years and I'd guess it's not popular because the constituency MP is an essential part of life for many.

FPTP works for the electorate and they accept it. The only one's pushing for it are the parties who are paddling in the shallow end.
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While the current system isn't ideal, Labour won 66 more seats in 2005 than the Tories in 2015 - with 1.5 million fewer votes! Didn't hear too much bitching then.
 
The United Kingdom Independence Party may have lost a leader but has found its public

THIS has been a bitter-sweet election for the United Kingdom Independence Party. The failure of Nigel Farage, the party’s boisterous leader, to win the constituency of Thanet South was a sharp disappointment. So too was the defeat of Mark Reckless, a defector from the Conservatives, who couldn’t hold on to Rochester and Strood (both were seen off by Tory candidates). Douglas Carswell, another defector, held on to Clacton, but with a reduced majority. On the other hand, with 12% of the public vote, triple what it won in 2010, UKIP has proved it can command considerable public support. But it has yet to convert that enthusiasm into seats in Westminster.

Paul Nuttall, UKIP’s deputy leader, growled that the result was an “affront to democracy”, and argued, reasonably enough, that Britain’s first-past-the-post system should be scrapped. His party has been surprisingly quiet on electoral reform until now, given how poorly the current system treats them: the 1.5m-odd voters who plumped for the Scottish National Party have 56 MPs, UKIP’s almost 4m supporters have a solitary one. The party has suffered for having support that is spread so widely across the country. Electoral reform was once an issue trumpeted mostly by the Liberal Democrats, but UKIP’s warped result may have helped to make it unavoidable.

More cheering for UKIP are the number of second-place results it secured. By the end of the count, it could be as many as 100. And although they have taken votes from the Tories in the south of England, the results confirm UKIP is increasingly Labour’s main rival in the north, too. In seats such as Barnsley Central, Oldham West, Rotherham, South Shields and Sunderland the party won between 19% and 30% of the vote. In Morley and Outwood its vote share rose by 13%, contributing to the downfall of Ed Balls, the Labour shadow chancellor. Some former Labour supporters seem to have been willing to express their disappointment with that party by voting UKIP, even as they could not bring themselves to vote Tory. Many questions now linger over UKIP’s future. Mr Farage has resigned as leader, as he promised to do if he did not win in Thanet South. He may yet make a comeback, but without him, the party would lose its biggest name. Its vote-share has jumped since 2010 but in the longer term it relies heavily on older, white, working-class voters, hardly a growing group.

Meanwhile, with the Conservative victory comes the promise of a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. UKIP is dedicated to leaving the EU: David Cameron says he does not want to. Will more disgruntled Eurosceptic Tories defect? Even as they fought this election, Many UKIPpers said that they had the 2020 vote in their sights. Coming second in so many races this time means they can plausibly describe themselves as the opposition in those seats. And they may well make significant gains in yesterday’s local elections, the results for which have yet to be released.

It has not made the transition to being a significant power in Westminster. But UKIP is unquestionably a force in British politics.
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http://www.economist.com/news/brita...c-after-nigel?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/afternigel
 
zippy said:
As for the electoral system, UK voters rejected a change in 2010 by a large margin. That it wasnt exactly your version that was on the table is irrelevant. Its the version that was on the table. If there was a need for a different version, then the Lib Dems, UKIP, Labour etc had the chance to spell it out.
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You're joking right? Lib Dems had their balls in a vice-grip. Labour would never be pro PR.
 
Spizz said:
The funny thing is, the SNP have PR in their manifesto and would have suffered big time had it been the model used here. I guess it highlights perfectly the need for change wrt to Scotland, if nothing else. That's for the Scots and for the rest of the UK as well.
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Some parties actually have principles.
 
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