A Lesson in Maths from Mother of Parliaments – The British Election 2010
Posted on May 8th, 2010
Prof. Hudson McLean
Heare Ye All, in ex-Colonial Backwaters! This is how Democracy should work.
Close doors on Voters who have been waiting for hours!
Print less Ballot Papers than Voters!
And it Works!
Labour Party & Conservatives will NEVER let the Lib-Dems get anywhere near Power!
First, during 13 years, Labour Administration carves the electorate in such a way to keep the Safe seats very safe.
This is clearly demonstrated when out of a Total Number of Seats – 649:
29% = 258,
23% = 57,
36% = 306.
Liberal Democrats were clearly marginalised.
Number of Seats – Percentage of Votes – (Seats according to %)
Labour -ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 258 – 29.1%ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ (189)
Conservatives – 306 – 36.1%ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ (234)
Liberal Dems – 57 – 23%ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ (150)
Others – 28 – 11.8% – (76)
Total – 649 – 100%
And the British Government led by David Milliband had the bloody audacity to preach Democracy to the Government of Sri Lanka.
The bottom line here is-; The Pundits should Practice What They Preach!
God Really has to Save the Queen!
Express Your Opinion – Read What Others Say!
The Independent Interactive Voice of Sri Lanka on the Internet.
Please visit -: http://www.lankaweb.com/
May 9th, 2010 at 3:06 am
I have always appreciated your past articles. The British Elections maybe in a bit of a bother due to the first past the post system. Some tweaking or adjustments are needed to have some representation of other parties. Maybe on the addition of the total votes for parties in the country they are allocated a number of seats on top of the 649 in the current parliament. But at present the majority in the constituency gets the person they voted for not someone that some party imposes on them as in propotional representation.
The system would be better helped if they made voting compulsory like in Australia and curtail it to British Citizens and not to every Tom, Dick and Harry resident in the UK like the asylum seekers!!!!!!!! Yes the British are so damn thick that when Brown packs his bags David ‘Sillyband’ may become the new labour leader and what a prospect as a future british prime minister. God Really must Save the Queen
May 11th, 2010 at 6:21 am
This is the inevitable result of the first past the post system. SL saw something similar famously in 1956 when the MEP (a coalition of parties) secured 1,046,277 votes (39.5%) and obtained 51 seats while the UNP with 738,810 (27.9%) secured only 8 seats. The LSSP with only 274,204 (10.4%) obtained 14 seats – 6 more than the UNP. Such is the travesty of this system. Applying your formula, the UNP should have got 36 seats, and the LSSP only 13.
It is to address the flawed electoral arithmetic of the first past the post system that JR introduced the PR system. In the UK, the Liberal Party (those most disadvantaged under the present system) has been campaigning for years for reform of the system to yield a fairer result but it has not had the support of the two main parties, especially the support of the Conservatives. This time, given the ‘happy’ position it finds itself in, the Liberals will have greater clout in persuading the other parties to come to the party (Sorry, no pun intended). That will be to the good. If they fail again to win enough support, Britain will be condemned to coalition governments which may not perhaps be a bad thing.