Labour Government
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anonymous-user

Original Poster:

83 months

Thursday 9th June 2005
quotequote all
Apparently there's been a general election

These were the results for england

Party Seats Votes %
Labour 286 8,038,965 35.4
Conservative 193 8,102,662 35.7
Lib Dem 47 5,197,746 22.9

a) how the hell can they have won SO many more seats?
b) why are the scots and welsh allowed to vote?

grrrr. 1 way plane ticket please

turbobloke

117,155 posts

289 months

Thursday 9th June 2005
quotequote all
That's democracy at work.

Seeing 'Labour Government' I thought this was a thread about non sequiturs

B17NNS

18,506 posts

276 months

Thursday 9th June 2005
quotequote all
In the UK more people voted Conservative than Labour yet Labour are in power.

Democracy at work.

thanuk

686 posts

292 months

Thursday 9th June 2005
quotequote all
B17NNS said:
In the UK more people voted Conservative than Labour yet Labour are in power.


No, in <i>England</i>. In the UK Labour got more votes.

thanuk

686 posts

292 months

Thursday 9th June 2005
quotequote all
B17NNS said:
In the UK more people voted Conservative than Labour yet Labour are in power.

Democracy at work.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

83 months

Thursday 9th June 2005
quotequote all
B17NNS said:
In the UK more people voted Conservative than Labour yet Labour are in power.

Democracy at work.


im not sure about the uk but certainly thats true for england (see above). now i dont get to vote for the scottish parliament or welsh assembly so they should get to vote in england...

vetteheadracer

8,273 posts

282 months

Thursday 9th June 2005
quotequote all
:francisb said:
Party Seats Votes %
Labour 286 8,038,965 35.4
Conservative 193 8,102,662 35.7
Lib Dem 47 5,197,746 22.9


Soooo, Conservatives get 64,000 more votes and end up with 93 less seats than Labour....and THAT's democracy.

PR is the only way to go that way we can have a Pistonheads MP (The Honorary Edward PetrolTed Esq M.P. for all things motoring....)

scorp

8,783 posts

258 months

Thursday 9th June 2005
quotequote all
The current voting system as far as i am aware is a winner-take-all system, were seats can be won narrowly by a single vote, and the candidate can take all seats in the constituency. This can greatly exagerate seat majorities in the statistics, as someone with 1% greater popular vote could win 20% of the seats.

Seats are based on population in a given area (a constituency), so all you need to do is to win marginally in a few inner city area's (whose value in seats is very high compared to its geography), and hey presto, you get seats like everyone in the city voted for you.

The other system (proportional representation) has its flaws also, and it would definately in this case, in that it can create hung parliaments quite easily.

That may not be a bad thing, as it would distract our goverment from the important job of screwing us over.

Its great to see the large populous majority of convervative voters being marginalised by a minority of labour voters simply by virtue of geography.





>> Edited by scorp on Thursday 9th June 17:51

>> Edited by scorp on Thursday 9th June 17:52

heebeegeetee

30,139 posts

277 months

Thursday 9th June 2005
quotequote all
francisb said:

B17NNS said:
In the UK more people voted Conservative than Labour yet Labour are in power.

Democracy at work.



im not sure about the uk but certainly thats true for england (see above). now i dont get to vote for the scottish parliament or welsh assembly so they should get to vote in england...


they didn't vote in England, they voted in Wales and Scotland.

I think its unfair cos our Tory MP won his seat but we've still got a labour gov.

Nevin

2,999 posts

290 months

Thursday 9th June 2005
quotequote all
francisb said:


B17NNS said:
In the UK more people voted Conservative than Labour yet Labour are in power.

Democracy at work.




im not sure about the uk but certainly thats true for england (see above). now i dont get to vote for the scottish parliament or welsh assembly so they should get to vote in england...



Yeah, but then the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly don't have any control over your life, so why should you get a vote in them? The "English" Parliament has a great deal of control over the lives of those in Scotland and Wales, so why shouldn't the Scots and Welsh have a right to vote for who sits in it?

You can vote in European elections but not Latvian ones. Is that a problem for you too?

>> Edited by Nevin on Thursday 9th June 19:29

simpo two

92,708 posts

294 months

Thursday 9th June 2005
quotequote all
The answer is simple.

Independence for England!

c c

8,052 posts

268 months

Thursday 9th June 2005
quotequote all
Aye there’s trouble north of the border right enough.

Mars anyone?

vixpy1

42,699 posts

293 months

Thursday 9th June 2005
quotequote all
vetteheadracer said:

:francisb said:
Party Seats Votes %
Labour 286 8,038,965 35.4
Conservative 193 8,102,662 35.7
Lib Dem 47 5,197,746 22.9



Soooo, Conservatives get 64,000 more votes and end up with 93 less seats than Labour....and THAT's democracy.

PR is the only way to go that way we can have a Pistonheads MP (The Honorary Edward PetrolTed Esq M.P. for all things motoring....)


There's a downside to that... Green Mp's!

c c

8,052 posts

268 months

Thursday 9th June 2005
quotequote all
Come to think of it!
All MPs are green and from a different planet.

55jnj

555 posts

313 months

Thursday 9th June 2005
quotequote all
It was JOSEPH STALIN who said :

"The people who cast the votes do not decide an election, the people who count the votes do"



Think this couldn't happen ? Well remember the Birmingham county council elections & the 6 Labour councillors found to be running a votes factory !


anonymous-user

Original Poster:

83 months

Thursday 9th June 2005
quotequote all
Nevin said:

Yeah, but then the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly don't have any control over your life, so why should you get a vote in them? The "English" Parliament has a great deal of control over the lives of those in Scotland and Wales, so why shouldn't the Scots and Welsh have a right to vote for who sits in it?

You can vote in European elections but not Latvian ones. Is that a problem for you too?

>> Edited by Nevin on Thursday 9th June 19:29


i dont want to vote in scotland. i dont care less what laws the scotish parliament passes. i do however object to scots and welsh electing this shower of utter sh1t government that is dragging my country to its knees. once everyone has left england there wont be anyone left to pay for your dole, sick pay and battered mars bars....

independence for england and withrdrawl from the eu (happy to have same free trade relationship with europe as switzerland)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/vote2005/html/england.stm

Nevin

2,999 posts

290 months

Friday 10th June 2005
quotequote all
FRANCISB said:


Nevin said:

Yeah, but then the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly don't have any control over your life, so why should you get a vote in them? The "English" Parliament has a great deal of control over the lives of those in Scotland and Wales, so why shouldn't the Scots and Welsh have a right to vote for who sits in it?

You can vote in European elections but not Latvian ones. Is that a problem for you too?

>> Edited by Nevin on Thursday 9th June 19:29




i dont want to vote in scotland. i dont care less what laws the scotish parliament passes. i do however object to scots and welsh electing this shower of utter sh1t government that is dragging my country to its knees. once everyone has left england there wont be anyone left to pay for your dole, sick pay and battered mars bars....

independence for england and withrdrawl from the eu (happy to have same free trade relationship with europe as switzerland)

<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/vote2005/html/england.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/vote2005/html/england.stm</a>




Oh dear. Aren't we bitter? I couldn't care less if England gets independence or not, but so long as the UK Parliament (which happens to be based in England) controls the majority of policy decisions affecting the lives of those in Scotland, England and Wales, then people in those countries should be entitled to vote for the MPs who make up that Parliament.

I don't see a groundswell of feeling towards English independence though. And the only people I've ever heard of actually eating deep fried Mars Bars are English folk up on holiday . You lot love them

>> Edited by Nevin on Friday 10th June 08:12

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

83 months

Friday 10th June 2005
quotequote all
If I remember correctly, on average, one needs approximately 15,000 votes to elect a Tory MP whereas only about 9,000 are needed to vote a Labour MP.

It's all down to the constituencies - the traditional labour voting areas tend to have smaller, inner city constituencies whereas the traditionally tory countryside constituencies are larger.

Unfortunately, with Labour following in George Bushes lead and gerrymandering where possible (I believe there was a change in the Scottish constituencies that benefited labour IIRC) it will only get worse the longer they're left in power.

JagLover

46,750 posts

264 months

Friday 10th June 2005
quotequote all
Nevin said:


Oh dear. Aren't we bitter? I couldn't care less if England gets independence or not, but so long as the UK Parliament (which happens to be based in England) controls the majority of policy decisions affecting the lives of those in Scotland, England and Wales, then people in those countries should be entitled to vote for the MPs who make up that Parliament.
>> Edited by Nevin on Friday 10th June 08:12


I'm not particularly bitter, but I believe in fairness. If Scotland has its own parliment, then England or the regions of England should have parliments with exactly the same powers.

Einion Yrth

19,575 posts

273 months

Friday 10th June 2005
quotequote all
JagLover said:


I'm not particularly bitter, but I believe in fairness. If Scotland has its own parliment, then England or the regions of England should have parliments with exactly the same powers.

I seem to remember 2 Jags trying to pursuade the people of the north east that this would be a good idea. In essence I think their reply could be summarised along the lines of;
'Feck off you fat bastard we don't want to pay huge sums of money supporting even more pointless political parasites and beurocratic wasters, things are bad enough as it is.'