Quote:
Originally Posted by Osem
Depends what you call a mandate - last time out the Tories got lots more votes but a lot less seats.
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Well no, Labour got more votes than the Tories although the share of the vote was not reflected in the seat distribution.
As annoying as it is for the Conservatives the Liberal Democrats are screwed. Even if they won the election in terms of votes, even by a nice margin, they would remain the smallest party. With roughly 100 to 110 seats. Labour got a nice majority with a smaller share of the vote and an equivalent share for the Tories would give them a majority.
I think it's a horrible system and it needs to change. It's understandable to have a slightly unbalanced system when an election is close but not one that effectively makes it impossible for a 3rd party to ever win an election. Hopefully the result of this election will highlight this and geniune reform will have to result from the uproar that follows.