Saturday 6 June 2009

All Hung Together

The Tories have made much in the past of the crude extrapolation of local government results into what was then falsely reported as if it were a real total of real votes. But having lived by that sword, let them now die by that sword.

After all, these elections really were conducted in Lancashire and the Midlands (and North Tyneside, for that matter) where they battle Labour for victory every time, and in Hampshire and the West Country where their battle against the Lib Dems makes the difference between a majority government and a hung Parliament every time.

And thirty-eight per cent of the votes cast is not enough to win a General Election. It is, by the same measure (the projection of the same lot of local results), only the same as Michael Howard managed. When the Lib Dems were picking up the twelve to fifteen per cent that both the Greens and UKIP have managed by this measure, no one called them a “minor” or a “fringe” party. They are certainly no such thing today.

Britain stands on the brink of a hung Parliament.

We need our people in it.

1 comment:

  1. Ive suspected a Hung Parliament for some time. Mainly because I dont think the British people actually want a landslide victory for the Tories and are much more at ease with the concept of tactical voting.
    Hopefully this will not lead to a National Coalition which previously split the Labour Party for a generation.
    A Coalition on that scale is undemocratic.

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