Tag Archive for General Election

Hung Parliament, tens of millions of votes ignored

Well, it looks like people didn’t use their vote wisely after all.

The expected anti-LibLabCon backlash didn’t materialise with people voting for the LibLabCon coalition.  The Leaders “Debates” shown on Sky, ITV and the BBC successfully deflected attention from the local candidates and onto the party leaders even though only a few thousand of us could vote for them and the anti-hung parliament propaganda in Tory newspapers scared a lot of people into so-called “tactical” voting.

The BBCs partiality in this election needs to be investigated and steps taken to ensure that the privileged and powerful few aren’t given an unfair advantage over the already disadvantaged smaller parties.

And when the Tory media complains about the fact that Gordon Brown is still Prime Minister despite losing by 2m votes and 50-odd seats, they have only themselves to blame for interfering in the election.  If they’d left people to get on with voting for who they wanted instead of peddling propaganda about a hung parliament the result could have been very different.  If they’d stuck to slagging off Liebour and the Limp Dims instead of telling lies about a hung parliament they wouldn’t have motivated the LibLab voters.

It looks like UKIP’s hopes are all pinned on Nigel Farage.  The result has been pretty disappointing nationwide for UKIP but it looks like a lot of deposits have been retained and UKIP have beaten the BNP in almost every seat contested.

In Telford, David Wright managed to cling on to his seat with a reduced majority of about 1k, reduced from 5k.  Denis Allen got almost 2.5k votes, keeping his deposit and effectively depriving the Tories of a victory.  That was certainly the general consensus anyway – the Tories were fuming with us and the Liebour lot were shaking our hands blinking away the tears in their eyes, thanking us for seeing the Tories off!

In the Wrekin constituency, Mark Pritchard increased his 500 majority to 9k.  Malcolm Hurst for UKIP got 2,050 votes and missed the 5% needed to keep his deposit by about 350 votes.

As I type, there are over 2m more votes for the Tories than there are for Liebour and a difference of 47 seats.  There are 1.6m votes between the Limp Dims and Liebour but the difference in seats is 189.  The electoral system is fundamentally wrong and needs changing.  Under proportional representation, based on current vote share with 43 seats left to declare, the seat allocation for the main parties should be something like:

  • Con: 235
  • Lab: 185
  • Lib: 149
  • UKIP: 20
  • BNP: 12
  • SNP: 11
  • Green: 6

Tens of millions of votes will be ignored no matter what the outcome is because we still have this medieval first past the post electoral system.

Use your vote wisely

The polling stations have been open for 20 minutes now and today is probably a once in a lifetime chance to change the face of English politics forever.

For too long, English politics has been about the same tired old parties – the dishonest Conservatives, the illiberal and economically illiterate Labour Party and the weak and ineffectual Lib Dems.  We’ve seen our country bankrupted and sold to the EU and our trust abused by thieving politicians.  Today we have a chance to break the stranglehold the corrupt LibLabCon have over our country and change the way it is governed.

It might not seem like it with the media’s obsession over Brown, Cameron and Clegg and the exclusive “Leaders Debates” but today we are voting for an MP, not a Prime Minister.  If you listen to the LibLabCon and cast a so-called “tactical” vote then you’ve cast a wasted vote.  If you vote for somebody you don’t want to try and stop someone else you don’t want from winning then all you’re going to get is someone you don’t want representing you for the next 5 years.

You know that feeling you get when you’re choosing a new mobile phone?  You look at all the features and read the reviews and think “Can I live with this phone for the next 12-18 months until I’m due my next upgrade?”.  That’s the feeling you should be getting when you look at your ballot paper multiplied by a thousand.  The person you vote for today (if he or she wins) is going to represent you in Westminster for up to 5 years.

Forget about the Leaders debates – unless you live in Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath, Witney, Sheffield Hallam or Bangladesh, you’re not voting for any of them.  Forget about a hung parliament – a hung parliament is healthy for democracy, it’s only the megalomaniac party leaders that have anything to lose from a hung parliament.  Forget about the “big picture”, it’ll look after itself.

There is no such thing as a wasted vote, us it wisely.

Election Prediction

The election is almost upon us and it’s time for a prediction I think: Nick Clegg will be Prime Minister.

Now, don’t get any silly ideas about the Lib Dems winning the election because they won’t.  The Tories will win the election with most seats but they won’t have a working majority and Cameron would rather go without than share power.  The newspaper ads and constant talk about how terrible a hung parliament would be confirm that Cameron is out for absolute power and nothing less.

There will be no shortage of offers to form a coalition with Cast Iron Dave but they will be rebuffed.  The party faithful will be told that it’s better to let a LibLab coalition limp along for a few months before collapsing and then the Tories can romp home to victory in a snap election.  Most of them will fall for it of course and those that don’t will accept it for the greater good.

So that just leaves the Lib Dems and Labour.  The Lib Dems will come second on Thursday, relegating Labour to third place.  Clegg will want a coalition of the left which rules out the Tories and whilst the SNP and Plaid will make gains at the election (the former more so than the latter) they won’t have enough lobby fodder for Clegg to see off the Tories so it will be a LibLab coalition with Clegg as Prime Minister.

Whether El Gordo will manage to cling on as leader after the election remains to be seen.  Mandelson is already leader in all but name and I expect him to take over the reins from El Gordo at some point after the election.  Clegg says he won’t work with Brown but once he smells victory he’ll soon change his tune.

And what about the non-LibLabCon/celtic nationalists?  Well, UKIP will come out with a handful of MPs – I think between three and five.  The BNP will retain some deposits but they won’t win and seats.  The English Democrats will spring a few surprises but won’t win any seats.  The Greens will come worryingly close to winning a seat but won’t quite make it.