Electoral Systems in the UK and the 2010 Polls
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The latest opinion polls must have made encouraging reading for the Liberal Democratic leader Nick Clegg, but what they tell him about the projected size of his parliamentary party can only have reinforced his belief that the system is utterly inadequate. The Independent on Sunday has some very useful material for AS students on the electoral system and the Liberal dilemma.
First, in this piece, they consider the problems posed to the Liberals by the current system. While a ComRes poll puts the Lib Dems in second place behind the Conservatives (31% for the Conservatives to 29% to the Lib Dems) and has Labour languishing in third, on 27%, the actual Westminster projection is not nearly so sunny for either Liberals or Tories. Remarkably, even in that third place, the Labour Party would emerge as the largest party in parliament (this does assume a uniform swing). The seats allocation would be 273 to Labour, and a mere 106 to the Liberal Democrats, with the Conservatives on 239. Nick Clegg’s real concern is that not only does he suffer from the system’s inherent bias against his party, but his gains could be even fewer should the Conservatives manage to win their Labour target seats outright, making the ‘Nick Clegg for PM’ moment a mere passing fancy of the election season.
Very helpfully for AS students, the Independent’s John Rentoul also provides a guide to the pros and cons of the different electoral systems that could be used, also indicating where they operate in the UK. All of which makes the Elections option of the AS paper a vibrant and thoroughly up to date one.
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