UK Election 2010

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I see the Leader of the Opposition has stopped calling for an early election...

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Galloway's confirmed he's running again:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6940517.stm

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My 1p:

Now's as good a time as any. Wait to the Tory conference is done (for fairness' sake) then go to the Queen.

I bet Cameron's regretting calling for Brown to go to the country.

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5-5-4 airtime rule? Can you explain what that is please?

It's a rule that during General Elections, the airtime for the main parties is divided 5-5-4 (the 4 is the Lib Dems). So, if the Tories get more airtime than normal one day, they lose some later on.

BTW, I saw two "Vote Conservative" signs in Havering today.

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Is it me, or does David Cameron seem like a turkey voting for Christmas?

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Yeah, but he did seem pretty quiet about it over the summer.

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Obviously, we're not going to have a 25 October election. If Gordon wants 1 November, he'll have to go to the Queen on Friday.

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I'd personally prefer the AMS system. Like Scotland or maybe Germany's system.

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What's happened to the Lib Dems?

Of course, it's only one poll.

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Why not just close the non-domicile loophole, keep the inheritance tax thing as it is and spend the increased money on the NHS?

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Why would you want AV? It's an even less proportional system than FPTP.

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Have any of the books (i.e. Politico's Guide) come out yet?

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Why would you want AV? It's an even less proportional system than FPTP.

Unfortunately I have seen many Labourites back this system thinking that Labour will always be seen as the 'least worst' option and benefit from AV. However on a forced choice ballot Labour haven't been performing well for quite some time...

Personally, I favour a 50% PR, 50% FPTP system, similar to that in Germany.

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Personally, I favour a 50% PR, 50% FPTP system, similar to that in Germany.

I would favor such a 50-50 system, but that is not what Germany currently has. The party list votes determines the composition of parliament, and ALL 100% of the seats are distributed proportionally to that vote.

If a party wins, let's say, 250 seats due to the party list vote, and wins in 150 districts through the constitunency vote, those 150 people are taken away from the party list, and only 100 from the list make it through.

I knew that- mostly. I was thinking more of Scotland, actually.

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FPTP truely is broken. When the vast majority - if not all, I think - of MPs are elected without a majority in their seats, then we have a problem. And that's before you even begin to look at Government with a mandate...but without a majority.

Time for real reform, and that means STV for Westminster.

I disagree with STV. For a start it's hard to follow...

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Well, yes, the point of a general election is to form a government, but how can any Government have a valid mandate when so decreasing numbers of members are returned without a majority from their constituencies? "First past the post" was always described to me as "winner takes all". If 60% of votes are cast for candidates other than the "winner", that ain't a democractic mandate!

That's a fundamental problem with every system bar Second Ballot. STV you can win with only 20% of first preferences.

There have been two post-war elections where a party won most seats, but came second in the popular vote- 1951 and February 1974. February 1974 delivered a Hung Parliament and the election in October was narrowly won by Labour.

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Request that UK Election 2009 is merged with this, please.

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Digging through some old emails, I found something related to the British Election Study for last time around, where it concluded that Labour was only saved from a hung parliament by a strong economy and wouldn't be able to avoid one this time if the economy went bad.

Of course, it's gone spectacularly bad.

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BBC are reporting that Brown has agreed to debates.

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He didn't specify mention it in the speech today though.

Personally, I'm not too keen on a debate. It makes UK elections too Presidential and for a start "Dave" has a natural advantage.

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He didn't specify mention it in the speech today though.

Personally, I'm not too keen on a debate. It makes UK elections too Presidential and for a start "Dave" has a natural advantage.

I'm not very keen either considering Brown and Cameron already debate alot in the commons... this kinda just makes it more "showbiz". Not to mention it being on Sky, it should be on BBC and/or ITV to be fair. But, whether or not I want a debate, Sky have said it's gonna happen and it'd be worse for Brown if he said no.

They've threatened to empty chair him, so he's got no choice.

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Some polls from yougov today.



This was a survey of 673 people who watched Brown’s speech.

Which means they're more political junkies rather than Labour supporters...

Plus this was really aimed at the party rather than the general public, most of whom were at work during this.

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Today's Yougov 40 (+3) 26 (-4) 20 (-1)

Back to square one for Labour. :/

Brown NEEDS to go if Labour sinks any lower. The party needs a new leader.

I doubt we'll sink any lower. We have a seeming floor of about 25%.

The party needs a new leader, true, but after our likely defeat. If we change leader and still lose, that's a good shot wasted and the party's in bad enough financial straits as is. A Brownite-Blairite fistfight can frankly wait until we're not running the country.

There was no serious criticism of Brown made during conference publicly at all- it would have been reported massively if otherwise.

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Today's Yougov 40 (+3) 26 (-4) 20 (-1)

Back to square one for Labour. :/

Brown NEEDS to go if Labour sinks any lower. The party needs a new leader.

Alan Johnson.

Yep, would be a good one.

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Labour will have a new leader after the election - it's too late to force Brown out now and it's questionable that doing so would work out well. It's worth noting that dumping Beck for Steinmeier didn't do the SPD much good.

How long does it take to run a Leadership competition anyway?