Rotten democracy

I’ve been trying to make sense of our recent democratic disaster, if only to myself. I’m no statistician – maths are not my friends – but I wondered how the House of Commons would look if seats had been allocated according to the national share of the vote, rather than the somewhat arbitrary – and much manipulated – distribution of constituencies.

It’s a bit alarming. The turnout was 66%: that’s just over 30 million votes cast out of a total of some 46 million names on the electoral register. By my calculator’s reckoning, that would have given the Tories 239 seats, Labour 197, UKIP 81, LibDems 51, SNP 30, Greens 24, DUP, Sinn Fein and Plaid Cymru 3 each. Others make up the rest.

Instead of a majority of 12, the Tories would have been in a minority by 172. How d’you like them apples?

Yes, the UKIP thing is scary. They came third, excuse me. You don’t have to like it, but it’s called democracy. The existing result simply doesn’t represent the way people actually voted. It’s not that it’s unfair: it’s just plain wrong.


Cheeriest thought? It’s going to be another five years before we get the chance to be cheated again.

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