UK General Election

[Pricey_sky]

I'm happy for the SNP and the rise of power there, however something needs to be done where they are only forecasted about 33% of votes that UKIP/Greens combined get yet will have 50+ seats more in parliament. A change in the system is needed.

Very poor night for labour, I said a while ago that i thought Ed Milibands unpopularity could tell and it has.

 

[Tank Engine]

Re:

I'm happy for the SNP and the rise of power there, however something needs to be done where they are only forecasted about 33% of votes that UKIP/Greens combined get yet will have 50+ seats more in parliament. A change in the system is needed.

Unfortunately, there is no perfect system. I like the Irish system which has multiple seat constituencies. It's quite complex (the d'Hont system), but it is closer to proportional representation, is less susceptible to tactical voting and the vast majority of the electorate has a representative who they actually voted for (I'm not a fan of the Irish party system though). Pure proportional representation at a state level is unfair in its treatment of regions, so some balance is needed. Not that it's going to happen in the near future (I think a Lib/Lab government would be necessary before such a change is made).

Very poor night for labour, I said a while ago that i thought Ed Milibands unpopularity could tell and it has.

In the end at lot comes down to how the electorate view the leaders of the parties (regardless of the voting system). In addition, the first past the post system leads to more tactical voting, i.e. we don't trust Cameron, but we trust Milliband even less, so we should vote for the Tories, even when we prefer a completely different party. The press also plays a big role in this.

 

[ray j willings]

That's what you get "Cameron" if most of the nation sits around and watch's dumbed down tv sh%% like Britons got talent etc sits around eating junk food and getting Fat and basically are f%%$ing stupid then that's what you get a clean cut media friendly player who looks like he knows what he's talking about.
CUTS CUTS CUTS....people are going to get hurt by this. Disaster.

I hope the SNP make as much Fu%%ing trouble for Cameron's boys as possible.

Lib dems got what they asked for. They complied lost all political moral ethics and got their ass kicked "good"

And Labour trying to get Ed elected " a lightweight" a disaster. At what point " like the very time he became leader" they should have tried to get David as their leader and get rid of Ed. They would have walked in with David. Idiots and spineless.

Long term I hope come the next election that everyone's has enough of the tory empire and it stops Boris becoming PM.

Country is heading for trouble.

 

[del1962]

When Labour put Ed Milliband in charge the election was lost, I have nothing against Ed, but he just doesn't come across well on TV, unfortunately this has given us 5 years of Tory rule without the handbrake that was the Lib Dems.

 

[ferryman]

Long night, sore head, oh dear. What time does the TTT start?! Thank fook for cycling!

 

[The Hitch]

Heartwarming to see Bradford West, the single stupidest constituency in the land, has become the latest British constituency to (eventually) reject racism and bigotry.

 

[The Hitch]

Re:

I'm happy for the SNP and the rise of power there, however something needs to be done where they are only forecasted about 33% of votes that UKIP/Greens combined get yet will have 50+ seats more in parliament. A change in the system is needed.

A change in the system seems very far away though considering 2/3 of the population rejected it in the referendum

 

[ferryman]

Re: Re:

I'm happy for the SNP and the rise of power there, however something needs to be done where they are only forecasted about 33% of votes that UKIP/Greens combined get yet will have 50+ seats more in parliament. A change in the system is needed.

A change in the system seems very far away though considering 2/3 of the population rejected it in the referendum

Not clear what you are talking about, if it was last years referendum in Scotland it was 45/55 which is nothing like 66%...

 

[Amsterhammer]

This unbelievable result leads me to thank the universe that I no longer live in this England. With the exception of London, virtually all of central and southern England is now Tory, demonstrating once again that most English people are instinctively, fundamentally conservative.

Serious questions need to be asked about the polls, who were wrong across the board.

 

[Tank Engine]

Re: Re:

I'm happy for the SNP and the rise of power there, however something needs to be done where they are only forecasted about 33% of votes that UKIP/Greens combined get yet will have 50+ seats more in parliament. A change in the system is needed.

A change in the system seems very far away though considering 2/3 of the population rejected it in the referendum

Not clear what you are talking about, if it was last years referendum in Scotland it was 45/55 which is nothing like 66%...

He's talking about the previous referendum on the introduction of proportional representation

 

[ferryman]

Re: Re:

I'm happy for the SNP and the rise of power there, however something needs to be done where they are only forecasted about 33% of votes that UKIP/Greens combined get yet will have 50+ seats more in parliament. A change in the system is needed.

A change in the system seems very far away though considering 2/3 of the population rejected it in the referendum

Not clear what you are talking about, if it was last years referendum in Scotland it was 45/55 which is nothing like 66%...

He's talking about the previous referendum on the introduction of proportional representation

Doubt it as there never has been one. Unless it was before I could vote, which wasn't yesterday

 

[ray j willings]

Are there any Tories on this site. Be interested to hear their voice and how they feel about the massive cuts that are going to happen.

 

[The Hitch]

Re: Re:

I'm happy for the SNP and the rise of power there, however something needs to be done where they are only forecasted about 33% of votes that UKIP/Greens combined get yet will have 50+ seats more in parliament. A change in the system is needed.

A change in the system seems very far away though considering 2/3 of the population rejected it in the referendum

Not clear what you are talking about, if it was last years referendum in Scotland it was 45/55 which is nothing like 66%...

No, I'm talking about the av referendum of 2011.

 

[Netserk]

Hitch, did you vote in a constituency with a given winner or one where your vote mattered? I think I'd move if I lived somewhere where my vote didn't count.

 

[The Hitch]

Re:

Hitch, did you vote in a constituency with a given winner or one where your vote mattered? I think I'd move if I lived somewhere where my vote didn't count.

Given winner. Labour owns not just my constituency but this entire section of the city. In one election the labour candidate was found to have been one of the mps who abused the expenses system (corruption). Almost every mp nationwide who was caught up in it lost their seat but this guy won reelection comfortably.

 

[Netserk]

Ugh. I'm really happy with how we do it in Denmark, though I'd prefer if it was possible to vote for candidates outside your region.

 

[The Hitch]

Well its not ideal but I don't know if its much of a difference. When I vote in the Polish elections 2 days from now my vote will in theory be worth more Nationwide, but even then, no election is won by 1 vote, or even 5 votes or 10 votes. there's no big difference to me between my vote being worth 0.0001% or 0.00001%.

The US is worse. If you are one of the hillbillies who was born in Iowa, you have something like a 1000 times greater say in who becomes Pres than the average citizen. Even worse, its not even a democratic vote but some ASOIAF version of voting where you have to shout your candidates name in a room of your neighbours and women who can't find daycare for their children can't vote

 

[SirLes]

Re:

Are there any Tories on this site. Be interested to hear their voice and how they feel about the massive cuts that are going to happen.

Well if we want to have a decent welfare system etc the first thing we need is a strong economy to pay for it.

Voting conservative is not very cool as it's always more popular to focus on spending money rather than generating or saving it.

At the moment the Uk can't afford to pay for a Labour government, we're still paying for the last one.

 

[Netserk]

Re:

Well its not ideal but I don't know if its much of a difference. When I vote in the Polish elections 2 days from now my vote will in theory be worth more Nationwide, but even then, no election is won by 1 vote, or even 5 votes or 10 votes. there's no big difference to me between my vote being worth 0.0001% or 0.00001%.

That depends on what you count as a difference. In Denmark, often relatively few votes decide which candidate in a given party will get a seat in some (grand) constituencies. Whole elections have been decided by a couple of thousand votes. Obviously it takes less than that to decide if a party gets an extra seat or loses one. I guess that is one of the reasons why our participation rate is ~87%. Votes matter.

In my grand constituency, the party I voted for (Radikale Venstre) got one seat. He, whom I voted for, got that seat by 407 votes to the 2nd. The two represents very different sides of that party and I am certainly glad that he got that seat.

 

[del1962]

Re: Re:

Are there any Tories on this site. Be interested to hear their voice and how they feel about the massive cuts that are going to happen.

Well if we want to have a decent welfare system etc the first thing we need is a strong economy to pay for it.

Voting conservative is not very cool as it's always more popular to focus on spending money rather than generating or saving it.

At the moment the Uk can't afford to pay for a Labour government, we're still paying for the last one.

It wasn't the Labour government that caused the economic crisis though, they just found themselves in a global economic crisis.

The question is does further austerity really work or will it actually kill economic growth?

 

[The Hitch]

Also, this is the kind of thing I love about UK general elections that I don't think you see anywhere else in the world

 

[snccdcno]

Looking forward to Boris attempting to say Chuka Umunna during the next election campaign.

 

[SirLes]

Re: Re:

Are there any Tories on this site. Be interested to hear their voice and how they feel about the massive cuts that are going to happen.

Well if we want to have a decent welfare system etc the first thing we need is a strong economy to pay for it.

Voting conservative is not very cool as it's always more popular to focus on spending money rather than generating or saving it.

At the moment the Uk can't afford to pay for a Labour government, we're still paying for the last one.

It wasn't the Labour government that caused the economic crisis though, they just found themselves in a global economic crisis.

The question is does further austerity really work or will it actually kill economic growth?

The problem was that's despite a number of years of strong economic growth the Labour Party had been overspending so the deficit was already very large prior to the global financial crisis.that meant we were not only hit harder but could not also could not pay their way out of a recession (ie the Keynesian way).

The Labour Party inherited the strongest economic position of any recent government. They won because of the ERM mess and the fact that the Conservatives were so busy fightng themselves that they were incapable of organising the proverbial p@ss up in a brewery let alone running the country. Even so Tony Blair wisely promised to stick to Conservative spending plans in their first term just to be on the safe side. Shame they didn't stick to that later on.

Am I a fan of austerity? No. Would I like us to spend more on lots of things? Yes. However we can't afford it.

 

[Jagartrott]

Well, as the rich get richer, I'm sure *they* can afford it.

 

[ray j willings]

Also, this is the kind of thing I love about UK general elections that I don't think you see anywhere else in the world

The trouble is Hitch, is that one of those idiots could end up PM