British election shows stupidity of their voting system. Tories get 37% end up running the country

[HenryBHough]

Email exchange today with a friend I'll be visiting in North Yorkshire week after next. He was chuckling over what apparently was a concerted effort to lead pollsters down the garden path. Nothing to do with any party; just people sick of their phone ringing every five minutes with inane questions.

In his small city the polls universally predicted a Labour sweep; MP, Borough Council, Parish (City) Council. Actuality? Conservative MP; hung borough council (there'll have to be a coalition of some sort) but at the city level? The one thing nobody predicted; losses for all the parties and election of three independents.

During the coming trip I'll be in several large cities and a larger number of smaller cities/villages. Most interesting conversation will be with a distant relative (discovered just months ago through ancestry research) who has retired to a rural farm after a life in politics including has served as an MP for one term. I haven't discussed the possibility of intentionally misled pollsters but definitely will be doing that.

I could easily discount the chuckling of the first individual as he runs a pub and is given to joking yet the comic polling results raise the possibility that it was "for real". If it was, imaging the hell that could be raised with American pundits by a fed-up-with intrusive polling public!

 

[Bootneck]

Any system that produces that idiot result is illigitimate.

Lol! So good to have someone to laugh at!

 

[dcraelin]

The difference between Labour and Tory in the UK is like 1/20th of the difference between the GOP and Democrats in the USA you know...

Maybe in presentation, but the reality is there is more difference between the Conservatives and the Labour Party in actual policy programs than there is between the Democrats and Republicans. Obama is more or less a continuation of Bush with a more socially liberal presentation to appeal to his particular demographics.

But you Americans love a good show, some political kabuki theater. All flash no actual substance for you colonials.

I think I agree with you on the Kabuki theater comment

 

[dcraelin]

Email exchange today with a friend I'll be visiting in North Yorkshire week after next. He was chuckling over what apparently was a concerted effort to lead pollsters down the garden path. Nothing to do with any party; just people sick of their phone ringing every five minutes with inane questions.

In his small city the polls universally predicted a Labour sweep; MP, Borough Council, Parish (City) Council. Actuality? Conservative MP; hung borough council (there'll have to be a coalition of some sort) but at the city level? The one thing nobody predicted; losses for all the parties and election of three independents.

During the coming trip I'll be in several large cities and a larger number of smaller cities/villages. Most interesting conversation will be with a distant relative (discovered just months ago through ancestry research) who has retired to a rural farm after a life in politics including has served as an MP for one term. I haven't discussed the possibility of intentionally misled pollsters but definitely will be doing that.

I could easily discount the chuckling of the first individual as he runs a pub and is given to joking yet the comic polling results raise the possibility that it was "for real". If it was, imaging the hell that could be raised with American pundits by a fed-up-with intrusive polling public!

except the scary part of it is...at least in america is that some exit polling isnt matching, or didnt in the last election....which some say points to computer ballot counting fraud..... Would like to know how England counts their ballots wheather they have computerized ballot boxes with a paper trail...

 

[HenryBHough]

except the scary part of it is...at least in america is that some exit polling isnt matching, or didnt in the last election....which some say points to computer ballot counting fraud..... Would like to know how England counts their ballots wheather they have computerized ballot boxes with a paper trail...

\

Polling is more art than science though pollsters deny that. Exit polling should pretty well reflect actual result - it surely did in Britain last week. Perhaps because Britain remains wedded to paper ballots:

Explainer how Britain counts its votes

I do wonder why telephone polling persists when it has become common for people, disgusted with all the calls (many of them blatant "push" polls) and gleefully provide misleading answers.

But, hey, thousands of otherwise un-employables get a few days work.....

 

[dcraelin]

except the scary part of it is...at least in america is that some exit polling isnt matching, or didnt in the last election....which some say points to computer ballot counting fraud..... Would like to know how England counts their ballots wheather they have computerized ballot boxes with a paper trail...

\

Polling is more art than science though pollsters deny that. Exit polling should pretty well reflect actual result - it surely did in Britain last week. Perhaps because Britain remains wedded to paper ballots:

Explainer how Britain counts its votes

I do wonder why telephone polling persists when it has become common for people, disgusted with all the calls (many of them blatant "push" polls) and gleefully provide misleading answers.

But, hey, thousands of otherwise un-employables get a few days work.....

glad to see they still use paper

 

[Phoenall]

What an idiotic result......

Tories get less than 37% of the vote...yet they will govern the country.

Not a single solitary policy they pass will have true legitimacy.

Just as nothing the US Senate passes does.

We have a first past the post system, which means it is the party with the most winners that get the power. The only way to alter this would be to force people to vote and bring in proportional representation. Every policy they pass will have full legitimacy as they meet with the wishes of the majority of the population that bothered to vote

 

[Phoenall]

one good thing about it tho is that with Cameron running the UK....the Scottish nationalists very well might call for another referendum on independence.

Lets hope they get it and have to stand on their own, with the deficit they already have even with the help of the English taxpayers what chance do they have. The last SNP leader lied about Oil revenue and now realises that he was barking at the moon, this one still thinks that England will pay the bills and cant see we wont.

 

[dcraelin]

What an idiotic result......

Tories get less than 37% of the vote...yet they will govern the country.

Not a single solitary policy they pass will have true legitimacy.

Just as nothing the US Senate passes does.

We have a first past the post system, which means it is the party with the most winners that get the power. The only way to alter this would be to force people to vote and bring in proportional representation. Every policy they pass will have full legitimacy as they meet with the wishes of the majority of the population that bothered to vote

U could have first-past-the-post modified with instant runoff voting...that would bring a more rational solution.
What you got now is a joke.

 

[dcraelin]

one good thing about it tho is that with Cameron running the UK....the Scottish nationalists very well might call for another referendum on independence.

Lets hope they get it and have to stand on their own, with the deficit they already have even with the help of the English taxpayers what chance do they have. The last SNP leader lied about Oil revenue and now realises that he was barking at the moon, this one still thinks that England will pay the bills and cant see we wont.

From what I've heard they are perfectly willing to make a go of it on their own. I am convinced that given an illegitimate conservative government they would be better off also. Oil revenue mainly only goes one way...up.