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2015 General Election

Who

  • Conservative

    Votes: 7 17.9%

  • Green Party

    Votes: 10 25.6%

  • Labour

    Votes: 14 35.9%

  • Lib-Dems

    Votes: 1 2.6%

  • UKIP

    Votes: 2 5.1%

  • Other

    Votes: 1 2.6%

  • Non Voter

    Votes: 4 10.3%
  • Total voters
    39
That promise was made in the event of a majority government. Nevertheless they have still admitted they got it wrong and apologised - and yes, that is as close to making it all right as you can get with politics.

They've done at least reasonably well with 57 MPs compare with the Conservatives 303. In fact, they have possibly punched above their weight in terms on influence at times.

The wipe out you so desire would lead to a majority Conservative or Labour government, both of which would be incredibly bad. Fortunately it's not likely to happen, albeit a halving of MPs would seem to be on the cards.

This government has been the most democratically-elected for decades (60% of people voted for one of the two parties in government as opposed to a minority of people in usual FPTP governments).
 
Tom said:
This government has been the most democratically-elected for decades (60% of people voted for one of the two parties in government as opposed to a minority of people in usual FPTP governments).
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That is ostensibly true, though I'd bet that the vast majority of those who voted Lib Dem would be against them forming a coalition with the Tories (as has been demonstrated by their plummeting polls).
 
Sam said:
That is ostensibly true, though I'd bet that the vast majority of those who voted Lib Dem would be against them forming a coalition with the Tories (as has been demonstrated by their plummeting polls).
Click to expand...

That's irrelevant under any voting system. I know it can't work perfectly in practice but the amount of influence a party has in government should be reflective how much of a mandate - or vote share - it has.
 
Well, that's pretty much it, folks! I have to say, I'm absolutely no fan of Farage, but he is bang on with his call to reform the 'democracy' in this country. 1 seat out of 650 for a party that commanded such a great percentage of the vote is really not on. Again, disagree with UKIP policies (same goes for the Greens, their 5% should equate to more than 1 seat), but people clearly are voting for such parties and the pitifully low representation in Parliament is disgusting. It makes a mockery of those who claim they are trying to bring the disillusioned back into politics; people are hardly going to be inspired to vote again if their voice is completely lost due to the voting system.
 
This image shows exactly what I mean.

_82860895_votesvseats.jpg


There should be much more pressure on leaders to get the system changed.
 
How do you reform voting though?

While the current system is not perfect, voting for a person, means you have someone who you can pick, talk to, and has a vested interest in benefiting the area they represent. Keeping the vote as simple as it is, allows the results to published throughout the night.

Ian
 
The trouble with that Ian is voters don't think like that. They see the leader of the parties and are told they are voting for them to come into power, and rarely give a second thought to their local representative.

We need a system where the remainder of votes are also recognised. Gaining a majority in terms of seats does not translate into the distribution of all votes.

A federalised system would be fantastic, although wouldn't reform voting. PR or single transferable voting would ensure that the voices of the less popular parties remain heard rather than discounted
 
The voting system will not change now the Conservatives have won. What they will try and do is reduce the number of MPs in the House of Commons from 650 to 600 and re-jig constituency boundaries in the process to strengthen their own hand and secure a THIRD term of Tory rule.

I hope that everyone that voted for the Conservatives realise that they were not voting for more of the same. We had a tempered Tory government last time with the Lib Dems punching above their weight. Now it's just a waiting game to see where the cuts will fall and how chaotic some of the votes will be with such a small majority.

The only glimmer of hope I can see at the minute is that the EU vote will complete kill off the UKIP vote now and two-thirds of their voters will revert to Labour (most UKIP voters are ex-Labour despite misconceptions).
 
Unfortunately, this all proves that the more people vote for "other" parties, the less chance of change, as the votes are spread so thin that it's really only the big two parties that matter. :(
 
I can't help but agree with the above.

I hope this doesn't deter voters, but unfortunately I'm confident it will.
 
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