UK General Election thread

[Imran Siddiqui]

How in the... what in the...

Wow... talk about the results being wildly out of sync with pre-election polling!

[Hauldren Collider]

Not sure but I think reg is referring to the irony of the worker's solidarity party losing an entire country to nationalism. In fact, I think you could even refer to the SNP as nationalist...socialists.....

[Imran Siddiqui]

I don't get it, are you claiming the tories won because the english want to keep SNP out of government?

I've heard this as a silly conspiracy theory... but the other way around, that people who'd vote UKIP voted Conservative to prevent any possibility of Labour/SNP government.

[Hauldren Collider]

The fact that the UKIP only won one or two seats despite getting something like 10% of the vote is pretty much proof positive the UK electoral system needs some serious fixing. Do y'all have open primaries like we have over here?

[Imran Siddiqui]

This made me laugh on Facebook though..

Does this mean the North was for Stannis?

[giblets]

The fact that the UKIP only won one or two seats despite getting something like 10% of the vote is pretty much proof positive the UK electoral system needs some serious fixing. Do y'all have open primaries like we have over here?

Can't see how open primaries fix anything. For any competitive race you have to vote for the candidate who'll most likely win in the general election out of fear of letting someone even worse win.

[Hauldren Collider]

Can't see how open primaries fix anything. For any competitive race you have to vote for the candidate who'll most likely win in the general election out of fear of letting someone even worse win.

That's only true in party-competitive seats, which is I think exactly how it should be. In safe Republican or Democratic seats, the primary allows Republicans or Democrats to choose how conservative or how liberal their candidate is.

I would prefer a preferential voting system but the primaries do a lot to mitigate the problem of winner-takes-all.

[regexcellent]

I don't get it, are you claiming the tories won because the english want to keep SNP out of government?

Partly this, partly labor's base previously being Scotland.

[Hauldren Collider]

Fox News definitely knows how to pick out the important parts of a story for its headlines

[Imran Siddiqui]

partly labor's base previously being Scotland.

But everyone was predicting (if the pre-polling numbers were true) that Labour would try to get into coalition with the SNP - so no harm, no foul mostly.

[Ben Kenobi]

I would prefer a preferential voting system but the primaries do a lot to mitigate the problem of winner-takes-all.

That's because you don't understand how electoral systems work. There's a reason why every leftist favors PR, and it's not because it gives Conservatives an advantage.

Look at tonight's results. The end result would be a minority government, not a solid, 6 seat majority for Cameron.

[regexcellent]

Labour claimed that it would not coalition with SNP iirc, not sure who believed it; I don't have an opinion and of course it's a moot point now.

edit: ben, proportional vote for DUP+UKIP+Conservatives is over 50%.

[Ben Kenobi]

The fact that the UKIP only won one or two seats despite getting something like 10% of the vote is pretty much proof positive the UK electoral system needs some serious fixing. Do y'all have open primaries like we have over here?

The fact that they did so well is evidence that it does not. Seats will come now that they went from just under 3 percent to 12.6 percent. People see them as a credible alternative that they can vote for and win. Same as Labor did around the first world war. I suggest Farage abandon his conservative crushing plan of PR. It won't help him, it will destroy all hope of him ever forming government.

[giblets]

That's only true in party-competitive seats, which is I think exactly how it should be. In safe Republican or Democratic seats, the primary allows Republicans or Democrats to choose how conservative or how liberal their candidate is.

I would prefer a preferential voting system but the primaries do a lot to mitigate the problem of winner-takes-all.

In a solidly left wing seat British people are free to vote for third parties like the SNP, and in a solidly right wing seat UKIP.

[Hauldren Collider]