{"id":431,"date":"2010-05-10T12:59:35","date_gmt":"2010-05-10T12:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/?p=431"},"modified":"2010-05-10T12:59:35","modified_gmt":"2010-05-10T12:59:35","slug":"why-we-need-electoral-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/?p=431","title":{"rendered":"Why we need electoral reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Liberal Democrats are currently in talks with the Tories about making a pact, without which the Tories will have no clear majority in Parliament. The biggest stumbling block to these talks is probably Electoral Reform: For the Lib Dems it’s a must have whilst for the Tories, it’s a must not. So why are the two parties at such odds on this issue? Well take a look at the election results:<\/p>\n

Total Votes: 29,653,638
\nTotal Seats: 649 (One outstanding)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Party<\/th>\nVotes<\/th>\nSeats<\/th>\n% Votes<\/th>\n% Seats<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Cons<\/td>\n10,706,647<\/td>\n306<\/td>\n36<\/td>\n47<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lab<\/td>\n8,604,358<\/td>\n258<\/td>\n29<\/td>\n40<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LibDem<\/td>\n6,827,938<\/td>\n57<\/td>\n23<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
UKIP<\/td>\n917,832<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

So, the Tories clearly won with 36% of the vote but it earned them 47% of the seats. Conversely the Lib Dems took 23% of the vote but only got 9% of the seats. Is it any wonder the Lib Dems want Electoral Reform and the Tories don’t! As for UKIP (Bless), they took 3% of the vote but got no seats at all.<\/p>\n

Now lets say we had a proportional system of representation. Based on the votes cast, this is how the seats would have been distributed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Party<\/th>\nVotes<\/th>\nSeats<\/th>\n% Votes<\/th>\n% Seats<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Cons<\/td>\n10,706,647<\/td>\n234<\/td>\n36<\/td>\n36<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lab<\/td>\n8,604,358<\/td>\n188<\/td>\n29<\/td>\n29<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LibDem<\/td>\n6,827,938<\/td>\n149<\/td>\n23<\/td>\n23<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
UKIP<\/td>\n917,832<\/td>\n20<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

To sum it up, the Tories secured a seat for every 35k votes they received but the Lib Dems required 120k votes for each of theirs. As for UKIP, they just plunged into a black political hole with their 917k votes not securing them a single voice in the Commons.<\/p>\n

This strikes me as a ridiculous system, devised by those who seemingly benefit the most from it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Liberal Democrats are currently in talks with the Tories about making a pact, without which the Tories will have no clear majority in Parliament. The biggest stumbling block to these talks is probably Electoral Reform: For the Lib Dems it’s a must have whilst for the Tories, it’s a must not. So why are… Continue reading Why we need electoral reform<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=431"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":439,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions\/439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stmellion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}