The people have spoken - but, as usual the politicians hear what they want to hear!

Yesterday there was a general election in the UK and this morning I was able to hear about 10 seconds of the news before I gave up in despair and turned the news off!

All the results are now in and the new parliament looks like this - Tory with a side order of SNP.

On a gain of 1.4% of the votes the conservatives gain 21 extra seats, the Labour vote went up 3.6% and they got just 15 extra seats. Maths is difficult.

On 41% of the total votes cast in England (I'll deal with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in a bit) the Conservatives got 319 out of 533 seats - HOW DOES THIS MATHS WORK?

For the UK it is even worse - 36.9% of people voted conservative - less than 4 people in 10! Yet he has a "democratic mandate" from the people which includes all of us - we voted for him so we got him..............
My constituency is worse - our MP was elected by 31.6% of the voters


If we had Proportional Representation (PR) here the house would look quite different.

Under PR we would in England have -
Conservative - 219 seats
Labour           - 169 seats
Lib dems       - 44 seats
UKIP             - 73 seats
Green            - 22 seats
Others           - 5 seats (independents mostly)

However there is a number that made their statement by Not Voting AT ALL  - these people do not want a government enough to turn out. Or just don't care - so lets give their vote to nobody at all - if they cannot be bothered to vote, nobody should be elected - there were 3 MILLION more people DID NOT VOTE than voted Conservative - 3 MILLION.
Over 1 person in 3 did not vote who could have voted.

The new English parliament looks like this
Conservative - 144 seats
Labour           - 111 seats
Lib dems       - 29 seats
UKIP             - 48 seats
Green            - 15 seats
Others           - 3 seats (independents mostly)
Empty           - 183 seats (Saving 67060 per seat so - £12,271,980 saved per year = ~£70 million by the time pay rises are taken into account in the term of the parliament!)

Scotland has 56 SNP (50% of the vote), 1 Labour (24.3%), 1 Conservative (14.9%), and 1 Liberal MP (7.5%) 

Under PR it looks like this in Scotland - 

SNP         - 35 seats

Labour     - 17 seats

Conservative - 9 seats

Liberals    - 5 seats

UKIP        - 1 seat

Green       - 1 seat

Others  - none

Taking into account the 1.62 Million people who did not vote we get

SNP         - 21 seats

Labour     - 10 seats

Conservative - 6 seats

Liberals    - 3 seats

UKIP        - 1 seat

Green       - 1 seat

Others  - none

Empty -  17 seats (1.14 million pounds saved)

Wales has 40 seats and 25 Labour (36.9% of the vote) 11 Tories (27.2%) Plaid Cymru (12.1%) 1 Lib dem (6.5%) no UKIP(13.6%) and no others

Under PR we get in Wales

Labour           - 15 Seats

Conservative - 11 Seats

Plaid Cymru  - 5 seats

Lib Dem        - 3 seats

UKIP             - 5 seats

Green            - 1 seat

Others           - 0 seats

Taking the 785909 people who did not vote into account we get

Labour           - 10 Seats

Conservative - 7 Seats

Plaid Cymru  - 3 seats

Lib Dem        - 2 seats

UKIP             - 4 seats

Green            - 1 seat

Others           - 0 seats

Empty           - 14 seats (£938840 saving per year)

Northern Ireland has 18 seats and an electorate of 1,236,683 

DUP                               - 5 seats (Actual 8)

Sinn Fein                       - 4 seats  (Actual 4)

SDLP                             - 3 seats (Actual 3)

UUP                               - 3 seats (Actual 2)

Alliance party                - 2 seats (actual 0)

The others got 1 seat for real and get 1 seat under PR

But lets take the whopping 41.9% who did not vote at all

DUP               - 3 seats

Sinn Fein         - 3 seats

UUP               - 2 seats

Alliance          - 1 seat

Everybody else none with 8 empty seats (Saving us a cool £536480 a year in salaries)

For the UK a a whole we get the following taking no votes and PR

Unfilled - 223 seats saving £74771900 over a 5 year term

Conservative - 159 seats

Labour - 131 seats

UKIP - 54 seats

Liberals - 34 seats

SNP 20 seats

Green 16 seats

DUP and Plaid - 3 seats each

Sinn Fein and others - 2 seats each

SDLP, Alliance party and TUSC - 1 seat each

Is the UK turning into a rotten borough?

Today's news headline on the BBC website ia "Leaders set out rival 'choices'"

What choice do we actually have here? It makes me think that we seriously need to examine our electoral system as I fear that we are rapidly turning into a rotten borough, or at least a modern version of one.

Historically a rotten borough was a throwback to when a constituency had a royal charter to elect members of parliament, these were often controlled by the mp or landowner with people given little or no choice on who they elected.

Rotten or pocket boroughs were officially abolished in an electoral reform act in 1832.

In this election we had various party leader debates and all the parties talk about "Choices" we are told that to get a government of a particular stripe we have to vote for that party.
In our system over 50% of the votes were wasted in the last election - over 64% in my constituency were wasted. - votes posted for losing candidates and no votes

I am seriously annoyed that the media and politicians have perpetuated the myth that we have a democratically elected government - in truth who are we electing?

I get to vote for 1 person to become the mp for this constituency - that person represents a party (I have no choice in that - there are no independent candidates) - a vote for a candidate is seen as a vote for the party of the winning candidate (regardless of who I actually voted for)
As a voter I have no say about who the parties nominate for election, nor do I have a say in the policies or beliefs of the parties, nor do I have a say in the leader of that party.

We do not vote for the party leader - nor do we elect a government.

Given the major disconnect between who we actually vote for and the reality I think that it is time for electoral reform .

The Government will say that we had a referendum on electoral reform and the vote was in favour of the first past the post system, but they don't listen to the question they actually asked which was would you like to change the existing electoral system to the alternative vote? - this was a simple yes or no question with a very specific yes answer - this is not the same as electoral reform.

In actual fact the party leader with the greatest number of seats in the house sets up a meeting with an unelected monarch who invites them to form a government.
If there is a coalition we get no say in that either - it seems to me that things have been stitched up.
the politicians and those in power.

Life will not change significantly no matter who is in Government - in fact things stay pretty much the same - so vote for choice or live in a rotten borough where democratic power is kept well away from the people and in the hands of parties who have their own agendas and an unelected octogenarian.

Hey in Britain we can do both.


In actual fact I do, as a member of a trade union I am allowed to vote in Labour party elections, but I abstain from voting as I have no particular affinity with or wish to be a member of any political party. I also do not pay the political levy on the union membership.

The weekend before an election

Unless you have been living under a stone for the last several months there is a general election here on Thursday (7th May)

I, for one, have had more than enough of the rhetoric and attempts to score hollow points victories.

I'm going to give you my honest opinion here

I've checked the wording on my polling card and guess what - all these leader debates, party political broadcasts, endless tedious interviews on the news, TV and radio were all to divert the attention from the question you are actually asking me.

In the election I am being asked to elect a candidate to be a member of parliament.

That is right I am voting for a PERSON, I am not voting for the prime minister, the government, or even for a party - I am electing a person to become a member of parliament

I am fed up, sick and tired, of politicians making up answers for me to questions that they have not asked.

The way the system works is amazingly good at NOT listening to the country.
Our next Prime minister will be the leader of the party that gets the highest number of seats in the house of commons - not the party with the highest number of votes, nor even the one best able to run the country.

The next guy who takes up residence at No 10 Downing street will not have been elected by the population, nor does he have a democratic mandate - an octogenarian monarch will actually invite him to form a government.

The leader (elected by his party members) will then unilaterally appoint the cabinet and the new (unvoted for) cabinet.

Somehow my vote for a local MP who is a person is somehow read into this one cross on a piece of paper into a vote for a party (that I may not have voted for), everything that the party stands for and every crazy idea that they will come up with in the next 5 years until they pretend to take an interest again in what we want.

I am also worried about how our process has evolved from - in the words of the US constitution
"Government of the people, by the people and for the people"
To "Government of the economy, by the elite, for the bankers"

I did find it interesting to notice when a colleague started talking about listening to customers requirements and meeting his needs and requirements our prime minister's eyes glazed over and within a couple of seconds he had lost interest and dismissed us as "pointy heads" as though the concept of listening to customers and doing what they want is alien to him?