Vocal Voices

Does anyone know how many votes, nationwide, were made for each political party ?

If the results for each constituency were combined, would it produce a different result
in respect of which party was most favoured by the people? - and would this be a fairer
way of conducting a general election? Just a thought.

Good question.

In the UK there are 46,834,896 voters.

Cons got 42.4% or 13,645,064 with each win averaging 42,902 votes - 318 seats.

Lab got 40% or 12,872,702 with each win averaging 49,132 votes - 262 seats.

However, if the % of votes taken is applied as a % of the 650 parliamentary seats then Cons at 42.4% should hold 276 seats with Lab on 40% having 260. The other parties would have 114 seats between them.

Of the more well know parties they would have:

LD 48
SNP 20
UKIP 12
Green 10

Nothing much would change for the other parties such as Plaid, SF or DUP.

A parliament split along those lines would be more equitable with the voting intentions of the electorate, but the dinosaurs of the left and right will never allow it.

Thanks, Frank, for that quick and informative reply.

Sky had a %tracker running all night, I was watching it.

This is why the boundary changes make so much of a difference.

Of course if you had PR, then there would have needed to be a grand coalition between 3 parties to make a majority and it would be coalitions from here on out unless one party got a seriously high % of the vote.

The thing is that those figures are from an election held under FPTP.

We will never know how an election would go under PR where every vote counts. We have never had one and the dinosaurs will probably never allow us to have one.

I suppose the only hope is that one day, and by some miracle, we get a Lab/LibDem coalition, and I cannot see that happening any time soon.

Now that I'd be happy with

Workingman wrote:The thing is that those figures are from an election held under FPTP.

We will never know how an election would go under PR where every vote counts. We have never had one and the dinosaurs will probably never allow us to have one.

I suppose the only hope is that one day, and by some miracle, we get a Lab/LibDem coalition, and I cannot see that happening any time soon.

Well the last time they had a "formal agreement" we had already managed to rack up 26% inflation and the end result, after it fell apart and Labour renaged on all their promises; was Maggie and 19 years of Tories.

Not something I think either party is overly keen to visit again. Neither is Labour likely to want to force the country into endless coalitions.

miasmum wrote:Now that I'd be happy with

Me too x

Boundary changes, now there's a thing,

The Tories fear another election in the near future. They have 30 seats where Labour is second in 27 of them, and all bar one have a majority under 2,000 with 17 under 1,000.

Labour has the momentum (damn those pesky millennial snowflakes) and the LibDems (2nd in the 2 of the 4 lowest Tory majority seats) just refuse to die.

Well now. The boundary changes hurt Labour more than any other party while benefiting the Tories to the point where they could be in power for ages and ages. When the next election is called, within the next few weeks (months), it will be the last under the current boundaries. If a Labour power grab in coalition with the LibDems comes along why would either side refuse it? And if from that they work out that PR levels the playing field for the future we could be in for an interesting ride.

Boundary changes? Don't talk to me about boundary changes! (Gets soapbox from shed). I live in a village called Crofton near Wakefield. For some reason this is part of the Hemsworth constituency. I've been to Hemsworth maybe four times in ten years, yet Crofton is allegedly part of Hemsworth.

After the boundary changes Crofton is going to be part of the new "East Barnsley" constituency!! Barnsley? Blinking Barnsley? I've been there even less than I've been to Hemsworth.

Why not say that we're part of the Cyprus West constituency? In the last five years I've been to Cyprus more than I've been to Barnsley! Twice!