H
Halo
Guest
Original poster
So, for those of you who follow British politics, what do you think of the General Election results?
For those of you who don't but have a basic idea of the situation, a quick rundown:
So we've seen three major party leaders step down, the SNP take almost the whole of Scotland, and the Conservatives come out with a majority. This is, in my view, genuinely the most exciting British politics has been in a looooonnnngggg time. :D Would have loved to see Farage in the House of Commons though, would've been fucking hilarious.
EDIT: I'm particularly interested in hearing people's opinions on non-First Past the Post voting systems, considering these statistics (particularly the UKIP and SNP ones):
Conservatives - 36.9% of vote -> 50.9% of seats
Labour - 30.4% of vote -> 35.7% of seats
UKIP - 12.6% of vote -> 0.2% of seats
Lib Dems - 7.9% of vote -> 1.2% of seats
SNP - 4.7% of vote -> 8.6% of seats
Green - 3.8% of vote -> 0.2% of seats
In my view, FPTP works well in a two-party system by ensuring a stronger government, but in a multi-party system the benefits may well not be worth the sacrifice of democratic principle. While I'm undecided on my view, I'd certainly like to see it addressed by the current government and brought up in public discussion. However, there actually was a referendum on this in 2011, and people overwhelmingly voted to keep FPTP. Is it right to push the issue again so soon, even if the political climate has changed dramatically?
[BCOLOR=#ffffff](Note: I've put the prefix as "Discussion", but feel free to oppose others' opinions. I didn't use "Debate" because this is mainly for sharing one's own opinions rather than trying to outdo one another, but naturally sharing one's opinions includes disagreement and questioning to a limited extent as well.)[/BCOLOR]
For those of you who don't but have a basic idea of the situation, a quick rundown:
- The expectation was for a hung parliament, with a very close race. There was doubt that even a coalition government would be able to form a majority.
- Despite this, the Conservatives have somehow gained a narrow majority government, with 331 out of 650 seats.
- Labour only gained 232 seats, and as a result Ed Miliband has stepped down as head of the party (though he did win his seat.) Among the casualties for Labour were Ed Balls (Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer), Douglas Alexander (Shadow Foreign Secretary and election campaign leader), and Jim Murphy (the leader for Scottish Labour), all of whom lost their seats.
- The Lib Dems have been utterly decimated, losing 47 seats compared to the 2010 election, leaving them only 8 seats. Nick Clegg retained his seat, but is stepping down as head of the party.
- The very left-wing Scottish National Party have won nearly every seat in Scotland (56 out of 59) in an insane landslide victory.
- Nigel Farage, head of the right-wing UK Independence Party, failed to gain his seat, being narrowly beat out by the Conservative candidate. He, too, is stepping down as head of his party.
So we've seen three major party leaders step down, the SNP take almost the whole of Scotland, and the Conservatives come out with a majority. This is, in my view, genuinely the most exciting British politics has been in a looooonnnngggg time. :D Would have loved to see Farage in the House of Commons though, would've been fucking hilarious.
EDIT: I'm particularly interested in hearing people's opinions on non-First Past the Post voting systems, considering these statistics (particularly the UKIP and SNP ones):
Conservatives - 36.9% of vote -> 50.9% of seats
Labour - 30.4% of vote -> 35.7% of seats
UKIP - 12.6% of vote -> 0.2% of seats
Lib Dems - 7.9% of vote -> 1.2% of seats
SNP - 4.7% of vote -> 8.6% of seats
Green - 3.8% of vote -> 0.2% of seats
In my view, FPTP works well in a two-party system by ensuring a stronger government, but in a multi-party system the benefits may well not be worth the sacrifice of democratic principle. While I'm undecided on my view, I'd certainly like to see it addressed by the current government and brought up in public discussion. However, there actually was a referendum on this in 2011, and people overwhelmingly voted to keep FPTP. Is it right to push the issue again so soon, even if the political climate has changed dramatically?
[BCOLOR=#ffffff](Note: I've put the prefix as "Discussion", but feel free to oppose others' opinions. I didn't use "Debate" because this is mainly for sharing one's own opinions rather than trying to outdo one another, but naturally sharing one's opinions includes disagreement and questioning to a limited extent as well.)[/BCOLOR]
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