Cut Scotland loose – then we’ll have a fair voting system - The Times

Soubrette

drc wrote: »

I understood what you said perfectly, perhaps I didn't make myself clear . I actually agree with you in the sense that the constituency map (which makes England look like a sea of blue) doesn't represent the actual voting patterns of the population. In the same way, if you look at the map of how Scotland voted it would seem there are hardly any Tory voters in Scotland as the map shows a sea of red, orange and yellow. However, if you take a look at this link from the BBC election website, the votes in Scotland for the main parties were;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/region/7.stm

Labour 1,035,528, Lib Dems 465,471, Scottish Nat 491,386 and Tories on 412,855. So the Tories actually did rather well there considering it is such a Labour/Lib Dem stronghold (and votes-wise the Tories are just shy of the Scottish Nationalists who got 6 seats). However, the percentage of actual votes does not add up to actual seats, hence why the Tories only got one seat in Scotland, hence my point about constituencies/boundaries favouring Labour.

In that case we are both in perfect agreement

Perhaps the Conservatives shouldn't be so afraid of PR then

Sou

Andy_L

Soubrette wrote: »

I don't dispute that but I think it's a bit misleading to show a map of the UK and all the blue on it - a map of the land does not correspond with a map of the population.

I would just like a bit of honesty in these debates and articles really.

Just a bit

Sou

The bbc have a map you can switch between geographic & proportional
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/

Thrugelmir

Soubrette wrote: »

In that case we are both in perfect agreement

Perhaps the Conservatives shouldn't be so afraid of PR then

Sou

In 1997 Blair swept to power with a 190 seat majority with 1% less of the popular vote than the Tories polled last week.

So the PR issue is double edged.

Soubrette

Andy_L wrote: »

The bbc have a map you can switch between geographic & proportional
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/

That's pretty nifty - thanks Andy

Sou

ruggedtoast

We've stuck with Scotland because theyre our last large colony, along with Wales. Unfortunately as Sid Meieir points out with every iteration of Civilization, colonies cost more than they make if you're a democracy. Unless you want to use them as a staging post for an invasion or to monopolise a resource, and we've had most of the oil.

We could use this hung parliament opportunity to cause a revolution and initiate a police state. Then we can build a lot of police stations and oppress the Caledonians proper big style, but that will affect the happiness in our own cities.

I vote we just gift them to someone we hate and let them pay for the upkeep of free prescriptions, 4 year degree educations, free hospital parking, and fried mars bar allowances.

That would be the french then.

Bonia77

I come from a country where we have proportional voting and it sucks!


You think that you vote for your well-known local person, but you votes goes to the ba**ard at the top of party's list!!!!!


Thanks to your voting system you really vote for your representative in the Parliament, not some party buff.

Prudent

Cut Scotland loose and.... you will loose Aberdeen. Only last week someone on here wanted it acquired as a national asset.

lilac_lady

We would need a referendum to see if we Scots wanted to be cut loose. Personally speaking I wouldn't. A lot of Scottish people are not Nationalist orientated.

ruggedtoast

However much the Scots hate the English they are far too tight to vote for independence.

The only way to get them to leave voluntarily is to charge some kind of membership fee for a place in the union.

Thrugelmir

lilac_lady wrote: »

We would need a referendum to see if we Scots wanted to be cut loose. Personally speaking I wouldn't. A lot of Scottish people are not Nationalist orientated.

Would that have something to do with the fact that around 25% of the working population are employed in the public sector?

Suggest this a major concern for the Labour party if the Con\Lib alliance was to be formed, as would hit core vote. Much in the same way that Redcar had a swing of 22% to the Libs (Steel Plant Closure).