Who will win the UK election ?

Generali

antrobus wrote: »

Australians who don't want to vote, appear to adopt the very simple tactic of not being on the electoral register in the first place.:)

Plenty just don't turn up and cop the $100 fine. You get extra money for working on Saturday and for some guys that's enough to pay the fine. It's easy to end up standing in line for an hour or more to vote.

chewmylegoff

Generali wrote: »

If it's a National Government then the 3 jobs may well end up split between LD, Cons and Lab with the biggest party getting PM.

Surely if Con/Lab agree to form a national govt the LDs become an irrelevance with their handful of seats?

I can't see a national govt happening - I think it's more likely that there will be a stalemate with a second general election later in the year.

Generali

chewmylegoff wrote: »

Surely if Con/Lab agree to form a national govt the LDs become an irrelevance with their handful of seats?

I can't see a national govt happening - I think it's more likely that there will be a stalemate with a second general election later in the year.

It turns it into a bit more of an actual National Government and a bit less of a stitch up, especially if there's a good NI pollie they can get into cabinet perhaps or even a Green/UKIP into a non-cabinet minister role.

Minority Governments come in many flavours, especially British ones.

zagubov

I believe that the SNP successes are being exaggerated by the media so they can finally have a stick to beat them with when they get, say, 30 seats, instead of the extremely unlikely 50+ seats.

The media are very much out of line with the electorate/customer base. I reckon they would prefer to abolish them and replace them with a better lot of customers who agree with what they write.

patman99

The British election system has evolved over the centuries. Go back to Victorian times and it was not uncommon for gangs to round-up the serfs and force them to vote for whoever their master supported.

At least we don't have that these days.

People talk about compulsory voting and that people will simply 'fall-off' the electoral role. That is easy to counter. Not on the electoral role?, then you don't get any benefits.

As for what will happen this time round ?, only time will tell. One thing that is for sure and that is the Lib Dems are not going to form a coalition with the Tories this time. Instead, they will go with Labour. This was stated not only by Clegg last year, but by my local Lib-Dem MP as well.

Marktheshark

patman99 wrote: »

The British election system has evolved over the centuries. Go back to Victorian times and it was not uncommon for gangs to round-up the serfs and force them to vote for whoever their master supported.

At least we don't have that these days.

.

They do in some areas in some communities, they are told to deliver up blank postal vote forms.
Quite a few have been prosecuted for it and the practice is very widespread.
A 5% will change most results on a two horse race and hence why our present system is totally wide open to fraud.

A proportionate system is a lot more likely to reflect the voters actual choice, 20% vote for a smaller party, then 20% of the representation should be from that party.

At present you get an MP that the majority actually voted against.

vivatifosi

chewmylegoff wrote: »

I can't see a national govt happening - I think it's more likely that there will be a stalemate with a second general election later in the year.

The country is disenchanted enough with politics already. If they do that people really will have the proof that they can't organise a p*** up in a brewery.

Plus I think it will push the SDP to go full out for another referendum if they are seen as so reviled that those in power would rather let the election fail... Wouldn't there be an impact on the stock market, currency, investment etc if we are seen as unable to form a government?

For these reasons I think a grand alliance is possible.

padington

TickersPlaysPop wrote: »

We need the election system to include:

"None of the Above" on the ballot paper

Plus... compulsory voting

If the majority vote "none of the above" .... then we have a re election.

I tend to agree with that. God knows where it would leave us though.

michaels

I am not a fan of UKIP but I am a fan of democracy. Seems UKIPs opponents are not:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-32009961

Spidernick

patman99 wrote: »

The British election system has evolved over the centuries.

But we still have the antiquated FPTP system!

patman99 wrote: »

As for what will happen this time round ?, only time will tell. One thing that is for sure and that is the Lib Dems are not going to form a coalition with the Tories this time.

That may well be true, but 'for sure'? They have shown over the past five years that they will do anything for a bit of power. Hopefully they won't have enough seats to make a difference, but I certainly wouldn't rule out them doing a deal with either the Tories or Labour, whatever their grass root supporters may want.

Unfortunately I think the Tories will win the most seats and may just about be able to have a workable government with the support of the Unionists, and possibly working on the basis of Sinn Fein no-shows at Westminster.