What would the political landscape be after a PR driven ‘earthquake’?
The BBC has kindly provided us with a breakdown…
UKIP would have won 83 seats and the SNP only 25.
Leave you to express your thoughts on that one.
‘A Force To Be Reckoned With’
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Clearly PR makes every vote of equal worth and must therefore be more democratic. Whether the resulting multiparty coalitions would lead to better governments is another issue.
There are hybrid systems that could be tried. For example, the House of Lords could be replaced with an Australian style PR Senate.
Off topic but did not hear much from Billy Bragg this election. Has he finaly shut his mouth?
Perhaps he’s been worried sick about the possibility of a mansion tax?
Perhaps he felt he had nothing to brag about!
He`ll be at Tolpuddle in mid-July.
Should be good…until then, he`ll be hanging upside down like a bat in the BBC Green Room until we call for him.
Bellicose quacks seem to work!
Actually, 1`m spending some time trying to tell UKIP that this election result was what was needed.
Let the BBC splutter about Farage getting “dumped”(N.Smith on BH-lying oaf!)…they have moral legitimacy unlike ever before, and some genuinely good people now in Suzanne, Steve, Louise, Paul and Padraig to lead them forward-and Nigel available if they want that.
No Lord Pearsons now…withing 5 years too, so a fast learning curve all round.
Sad thing is is that UKIP politicos see only saets won as do the liberal media.
But that smell in the liberal pants is shit-and burning nicely, now their pants are on fire!
Only hope UKIP get organised, get some clarity and stop booting out people who fall foul of the media stings…a bit of ruthlessness towards all but the Tories now would go down well with the true Conservatives.
We`d have no Tory majority now if UKIP hadn`t eaten loads of Labour votes up north-so the Tories own them…and they now know it.
FFS…let the liberal oafs write their epitaphs on giants like Gove and Redwood,Reckless and McVey, Farage and the other brave souls who took the liberal evils and bit back…the kingdom is coming to the likes of these.
Maybe we all need to get to radio 3 and let the liberals bind themselves forever to the Miliband stone…if the Tories DON`T go quickly for the BBC License fee, and boundary changes then they`d be mugs.
But Labour are finished…as are the BBC…finally.
Stop paying heed to either, and money to the latter.
Reports of Nigel’s demise are premature – since the executive have just rejected his resignation. I wonder what the tone of this is likely to be in the 6 o’clock News? Not negative, surely?
It might be worth noting that with tactical voting having been so demonstrably effective, the total UKIP vote would very probably be close to 5 million or, put another way, about the same as the population of Scotchland.
The whole of this nation is in desperate need of being united again and UKIP can do it .
Final image.
The BBC think UKIP only have one dinghy, when they seek only showboats and ocean liners by way of naval vessels.
Lazy oafs paddle in the shallows, mocking.
Yet I see UKIP as the purple submarine,not a cartoon yellow one.
And the liberal elite are set up a la Belgrano…just tell them it`s a pizza spice or an Italian biscuit…and they`ll go away happy.
Sam Salt-ship to shore,over and out…
BIASED BBC – A CLARIFICATION
Over the years, Biased BBC contributors may have unwittingly given the impression that Proportional Representation was in some sense a bad thing, a needless tampering with a sound electoral system that only pinkos and borderline communists would be inclined to pursue. Previous posts commenting on the Lib Dem’s enthusiasm for such reform, if read carelessly, might have led the casual browser to assume that we were in some way against such a change on the grounds that it might lead to a perpetual majority for left-leaning parties and the inevitable transformation of our democracy into an eternal hung parliament – as David Vance once wrote, we would turn into Italy, where governments collapse on a yearly basis, leading to impotent administrations and endless general elections. We may have suggested that first past the post was a terrific system, the only fair way of electing a government and that all decent ethnic Englishmen were bound to feel the same way.
However, now that we realise that UKIP would have fared better under a different electoral system, we would like to make clear that PR is a really terrific idea and that we have been 100% behind it from the outset. Only once this splendid system is adopted will we have a democracy that is fit for the 21st century.
I hope this statement makes our position clear, and shows that we have been absolutely consistent in our views and in no way complete and utter hypocrites.
Thank you
Corrections and Clarifications Department
The Office
Humbug
Your point is a fair one as far as it goes – moving the goalposts after the event is bad form whichever way one looks at it.
But on the flip side, have we ever had a result like the one from Thursday before, under our first past the post system? I.e. 4m votes for 1 seat for UKIP, and 5m votes (UKIP + Greens) giving rise to just 2 seats?
I think that the sheer size of the democratic deficit means an electoral review is mandatory. Naysayers have commented that the UK voted in a referendum on AV just a few years ago and said no, but at that time we’d never seen such an egregious disconnect between overall votes cast and resultant representation in the House.
TL;DR: Thursday’s election has shifted the paradigm on the electoral process, and raises questions that must be addressed for the long-term integrity of the political process, and the legitimacy of our representatives who govern the country.
Dear Correctionist some UKIP supporters have expressed a new found love of PR many more haven’t
But isn’t the converse also true? That in the past PR has been a desire and goal of the left and centre left. The later believing that the former would support them in government ensuring an almost permanent liberal /leftist government here as it has in the rest of Europe. But now that it looks like it will be UKIP rather than the Greens or Tusc that will benefit there liking it not so much?
I think the proof (I know youll need some) of this analysis can be found in the recent AV referendum debacle- the system being offered so clearly designed to produce the outcome described above ,the electorate rejected it out of hand.
To be fair direct comparisons with the SNP or any of the nationalist parties must take into account that they only stand in a limited number of seats so their vote is much more concentrated than UKIP’s.
Speaking of concentrated votes, I’d like to see some analysis of what happened to George Galloway in Bradford. Why was there such a huge swing to Labour when that didn’t happen elsewhere? What happened to all those Respect voters…did they ever actually exist?
In a shock revelation, Mr Galloway revealed that he had proof of postal voting fraud in his mainly-Muslim constituency.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/10/george-galloway-to-mount-legal-challenge-over-election-defeat
Who’d have thought it?
Whichever system is used one thing is clear, the Labour party will decline into insignificance now in the same way as the Lib/Dems have. The Labour Party has had its time and now it’s over. It’s only relevant now to permanently angry left wing children who like defacing monuments that remember their brave forbears, disgruntled folk drawing pay checks from the government, whether employed or not, as well as the multitudes of wasteful socialist dominated Quangos and the big charities with their unelected CEO’s on huge salaries. Not forgetting the pompous, elite and over paid socialist dinosaurs of the BBC of course.
Interesting to note however that the Labour heartlands of the north of England voted in their hundreds of thousands for UKIP.
Across the world, particularly in Europe, and the USA will follow, there is a move away from big autocratic undemocratic and socialistic government. Let’s face it socialism just doesn’t work, never has and never will. From the Marxists of the Soviet Union to the national Socialists (Nazis) of Germany, the experiment is over. It’s taken a hundred years and tens of millions of lives but at last people are educated enough now to see the truth.
We all want a say in how our countries are governed, the Scots have shown the way, as did the Irish before them. However, let’s see if the Scots can survive their anti-austerity/socialist dreams. I doubt it.
The Greeks will be next to drag their stricken country out from under the heel of their nasty undemocratic socialist European and German masters. The other Latin countries will follow and In due course so will England. Maybe not at the referendum in 2017, as Cameron will fight to keep us in, pretending that he has negotiated a better deal, but it is inevitable eventually.
Whether the political party that frees us from Europe is UKIP or not is not relevant either. Nigel Farage has had the courage to speak the truth to this nation in a way that the BBC should have but would not. Millions believed Nigel and still do. Millions do not believe the BBC and hope that it’s days are now numbered. Though once again I doubt if Cameron has the courage to get it by the throat and either teach it to behave or kill it off.
Two significant problems with PR:-
1) Any PR system which involves the use of a Party List must be avoided at all costs – candidates are forced to toe the official party line in order to earn a place on the list, thus removing any spark of independent thought and providing the whips with a completely effective tool for controlling potential rebels.
2) PR systems appear to lead to more cross-party coalitions, with all the backstairs deals and policy compromises which they entail.
PR takes the government further away from the people, and diminishes both democracy and accountability.
I think those results probably flatter the Lab & Con parties, because a certain proportion of their votes would come from tactical voters who would prefer to vote for Ukip or the Greens or one of the other smaller parties in a PR system.