Tag archives for Election
Why vote in the European Elections tomorrow?
You might be forgiven for thinking that tomorrow's European elections are a waste of effort. If you care about brexit, either way, then it's vital you go and vote tomorrow. European Elections Tomorrow we have an opportunity to vote for the members of the European Parliament that represent the UK. After the brexit referendum and the shouting about the EU being unelected this might surprise you. However we've been able to elect Members of the European Parliament (MEP) for decades. Most of us don't, the turnout for European elections is usually really low. Bizarrely, Nigel Farage is an MEP and routinely claims his salary and expenses. The process uses proportional representation. You vote for a party and the parties have lists of candidates. The constituencies are huge. Scotland is one, London is another. Typically they have a population of about…
Labour Leadership – Who to Choose?
Labour logo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) I generally avoid politics because my job needs me to stay politically neutral. However the Labour leadership election isn't just politics, it's also about voter engagement. Unlike all the previous party leadership races I've watched, this labour leadership election is different. In the wake of their electoral defeat the Labour Party are trying to engage voters to choose the next Labour leadership team. This is a bold move, which hasn't been without its controversy. People have alleged that hard left groups have registered to vote, and others that Tories have done the same. Both allegations have been used to justify the support for Jeremy Corbyn. The former group are seen as true believers in socialism and the latter in an attempt to make Labour unelectable. Personally I doubt that either group can get enough support from the 610,000 eligible…
How to Properly Spoil Your Vote
How to Properly Spoil Your Vote What if I don't like any candidate? You might be one of the many people that doesn't like the main parties, and none of the other candidates standing in your area represent your views either. There are several things you can do. 1. Stand for election yourself (or help someone else to run) 2. Vote Tactically 3. Spoil your vote by writing on the ballot paper Spoil Your Vote Properly When it comes down to it and you realise that you really cannot commit to any candidate. Don't be disheartened. Do go to the polling station. Deliberately spoil your vote. Be Deliberate There is received wisdom that most ballot papers are spoiled accidentally. Personally I've spoiled a number of ballot papers and none of them has been accidental. So if you decide to spoil your vote…
General Election Opinion Polls
All the opinion polls that you look at for the UK General Election in May show a hung Parliament as the most likely outcome. However, things are likely to crystallise a bit more over the next few weeks now that Parliament has been prorogued and the election officially called (although we've not had any doubt over the date this time). If you read my previous series on the opinion polling for the Scottish Independence Referendum then you might be familiar with the graphs I produced. However that approach isn't really helpful for the General Election. With the Independence Referendum there was a single binary question, and the aggregate national answer was what counted. So to predict the result you could simply track the polls and look at the trends. The 2015 General Election is a series of 650 first past the…
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Alternative Vote?
I thought I would find out more about the Alternative Vote proposal and get past some of the rhetoric that I've seen in the news. It has to be said that so far none of the interviews I've heard so far (on BBC Radio Four's Today programme) have been particularly compelling cases for voting No (or Yes, but I've heard more No than Yes). One interesting thing though is the way the two primary campaigns brand themselves on their website URLs. On the Yes side there is which sort of suggests a wider campaign about electoral reform and also an attempt to give an argument for their case in the URL. On the other side there is which suggests a specific campaign and perhaps it is just AV they object to. Anyway, starting with keeping the status quo here are…