Elections – first past the post

We’re in the final days of the national election here in the UK, and today I realised something that I hadn’t before. There’s a constituency in South Dorset where the labour MP won with 42% of the vote. That means 68% of the people who voted there, did not want HIM as their MP.

I’m not sure what sort of voting system would prevent that, but it does seem a bit wrong in a democracy, that the winner was not supported by the majority. But then I recall there are instances of that in the USA too. A person can win the popular vote and not be president. Call me idealistic (in a loud voice, please) but I think there should be a better way.

What about a system of run-off elections? If there isn’t a majority winner, a run-off of the top two finishers determines the winner. Or make it live on the telly, and you vote off the least popular, one after another, until one remains. But that would make it like Big Brother, where the eventual winner is the least unpopular, rather than necessarily the most popular, if you see what I mean. (And that’s sort of like it is now, isn’t it?)

It’s not a real answer.

How can you be sure that people who vote for candidates who don’t win a seat still have a voice in their democratic government?

Here’s someone’s suggestion: we hold a general election and vote for who we want as PM, and also one person as a representative MP. And then we seat the top 660 vote-getters as MPs. On second thought, that wouldn’t be so good either.

All the peeps who have degrees in politics, I could use your insight into this.

It seems a right mess.

Theoretically, a candidate could win his or her seat with a minority of his constituency’s support. Then they could win the leadership contest of his party with a minority vote as well. Then the party could come in third in the general election’s popular vote, and the hung parliament (no party with a majority) would force a coalition government, and they could decide to make this person Prime Minster of the United Kingdom. NO!

I’m told the Queen can just appoint her Prime Minister. What if Her Majesty rang ME to say “We require your service as Prime Minister”. Wow! That would be amazing. And in that way I could be Prime Minister without a single citizen having voted for me.

That’s my kind of democracy.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *