Poll: Which party will get your vote in the General Election?
- Thread starter Hatter The Mad
- Start date
- Status
- Joined
- 28 Nov 2008
- Posts
- 8,725
- Location
- UK
haha exactly yet dullards like him still get the voteit makes me so sad
There is no denying that the current system offers too much of a bias towards Labour, and far too little towards anyone other party:
I think he posted it to demonstrate the bias in the current voting system. There are differences in consituency sizes that at present benefit Labour and penalise smaller parties. As well as that I believe the result of a general election can be said to come down to 250,000 votes in marginal constituencies.
Also comparing John Major's victory in 1992 to Tony Blair's in 1997 is probably the best example of how meaningless the popular vote is at present. In 1992 the Conservative party received over 14,000,000 votes yet was left with a small majority of 21, in the subsequent election Tony Blair's Labour received around 13,500,000 and had a majority of 179 despite only a 2% increase in the share of popular vote.
The prospect of a hung parliament seems to be becoming more real, it will be fascinating to see how it works out in practice, particularly for voting reform as the Lib Dems could use their 'king-maker' position to push through a change to alternative vote or proportional representation in exchange for forming a government - Labour being the only ones to offer even a concession to the Lib Dems as the Tories have wedded themselves to the FPP system.
Interesting as conceivably such a huge change could spell the death of the traditional Tory party as we know it - they are split enough as it is with Cameron's modernising 'hug a hoodie' agenda and the Europhile/Eurosceptic split.
Interesting times ahead - will this election be remembered as the one the Tories threw away?
Interesting as conceivably such a huge change could spell the death of the traditional Tory party as we know it - they are split enough as it is with Cameron's modernising 'hug a hoodie' agenda and the Europhile/Eurosceptic split.
Interesting times ahead - will this election be remembered as the one the Tories threw away?
Absolutely, it is incredibly biased in favour of Labour. Ironically, however, most senior Tory politicians, such as David Cameron and Eric Pickles, are against electoral reform and are particularly against a proportional voting system.
It's politics, if the conservatives need to do a deal then they will. To be honest there is little that seperates all three parties at the moment, if only the Lib Dems were a little less bonkers economically.
With the current state of the Euro I would suggest that most politicians are somewhat more eurosceptic than a couple of years ago. There is also a very real danger of either party going under if they lose the next election. If conservatives win it could be the catalyst for an Independant Scotland and if the Conservatives redraw the boundaries then Labour is pretty much sunk without Scottish support.
I am not all that sure it was ever theirs to win as the current system is stacked pretty hard against them with current constituency boudaries. Needing a 10% lead to win by a few seats?
If the conservatives get in to power expect some form of electoral reform even if it is just the redrawing of constituency boundaries. Labour's sudden interest in reform is purely a gimmick to try and get the Lib Dems on side and even then they are doing their best to try and pick a method that best suits them rather than the country as a whole. I am getting more and more disillusioned with party politics.
Soldato
- Joined
- 24 Nov 2002
- Posts
- 16,379
- Location
- 38.744281°N 104.846806°W
WOOOOOOSH.haha exactly yet dullards like him still get the vote
We have a winner.
Explain please, how does "all that blue" signify bias in the voting system?
Associate
- Joined
- 30 Sep 2004
- Posts
- 1,038
- Location
- Colchester, Essex
but, each constituency contains roughly the same population, they just happen to be a different geographical size...
Soldato
- Joined
- 7 Jan 2007
- Posts
- 10,607
- Location
- Sussex, UK
I will vote Labour. Tories are even worse for my working class family.
They vary quite a bit in size of population. Taking England alone (and excluding the Isle of Wight as it is disproportionaly large at 103,000) you go from 56,100 to 79,800 people. Scotland goes from 21,800 to 78,600. Wales goes from 43,000 to 68,200. Northern Ireland goes from 55,000 to 72,800.
So at worst case the MP from Na h-Eileanan an Iar represents almost 5 times fewer people than the MP from the Isle of Wight yet holds exactly the same parliamentary power.
I haven't done the research myself but I have heard it mentioned that a disproportionate number of the larger constituencies are Conservative and a disproportionate number of the smaller constituencies are Labour. It is quite possible with our electoral system for a party to win more of the popular vote but actually lose the general election.
Skimmed a few pages and skipped the rest, so I'm butting in, but...
I'm inclined to say I will vote for the first party who will honestly tell me what they're going to do to fix the current mess. Only inclined though because the answer to that would likely be BNP or UKIP and there's no way in hell I'm voting for either of those.
That leaves me decidedly undecided. None of the main parties are going to admit what they're going to do because they all know it'll be bad news. Personally I'd rather they just came out and said it, rather than all the smoke and mirrors. :/
I'm inclined to say I will vote for the first party who will honestly tell me what they're going to do to fix the current mess. Only inclined though because the answer to that would likely be BNP or UKIP and there's no way in hell I'm voting for either of those.
That leaves me decidedly undecided. None of the main parties are going to admit what they're going to do because they all know it'll be bad news. Personally I'd rather they just came out and said it, rather than all the smoke and mirrors. :/
Redrawing the constituency boundaries happens every eight years, regardless of who is in government, and is an integral part of first past the post.
Of course this push towards a reform in the voting system is a gimmick, but guess what? So is, nigh on, everything said by political parties. Why have Labour declared sudden interest in the Alternate Vote? Because it's the only other voting system (that I've come across), that in all probability, would give them a bigger majority than First Past the Post, which is being championed by senior Conservatives.
Last edited:
20%? That's a new one! Shows how (not) in touch with politics I am.
And exactly my point. They're all too scared to reveal their policies. Why should we trust anyone who can't stand in front of and say we'll do X, Y, and Z and it's going to hurt. Everyone with even the slighest brain power knows -£170bn cannot be allowed to continue.
Associate
- Joined
- 8 Jun 2009
- Posts
- 326
- Location
- SO31
British Nationalist Party.
Nah I kid, I'm too young to vote. :3
Nah I kid, I'm too young to vote. :3
I would vote for a conservative-liberal party, I think the UK has none like that though so I'd either vote for the Social liberals so Liberal Democrat or perhaps for Conservative ( What kind of conservative party are they though when they see themselves as ''green'', that's not conservative, thats very very left wing rubbish, I mean ''We urgently need to move to a low carbon economy'' is not conservative at all. I like small governments but I oppose any kind of green idea if it costs people or businesses anything like a lot of money or changing a lifestyle, from what I've read on their site they are worse with their environmentalism than labor 
, I mean I understand investments can pay back like better isolation for homes, but ''not allowing'' anything but clean new power plans is something I'd disagree with, just do whatever is cheapest, or restricting heathrow's expansion is again something I'd not agree with)
, I mean I understand investments can pay back like better isolation for homes, but ''not allowing'' anything but clean new power plans is something I'd disagree with, just do whatever is cheapest, or restricting heathrow's expansion is again something I'd not agree with)
Last edited:
- Status