About that UK election
While the Conservative Party won a decisive victory in yesterday’s UK election, the Labour Party might take some solace – the real loser were the Liberal Democrats, even if they wind up in a coalition government with the conservatives. The reason is because of the disproportionality of the first-past-the-post (or single member district) system.
In terms of votes cast, Conservatives got 36%, Labour received 29%, and the Liberal Democrats obtained 23%. However, the Conservatives obtained 47% of the seats, Labour received 39%, and the Liberal Democrats got just 8%. Thus, while Conservatives and Labour got about 10% more seats than votes, the Liberal Democrats got 15% less seats than votes. The disproportionality of first-past-the-post systems is the reason the Liberal Democrats were the real loser in the election.
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since when is 36% of the vote a decisive victory? The fact is that the Conservatives failed to win a decisive victory, that is why we have a hung parliament. You are spot on with your last sentence: first-past-the-post means voter’s wishes are translated into seats in Parliament.
Personally, I do not think 36% of the vote is very impressive. I meant decisive in the sense of the number seat changes and should have made that more clear. The Conservatives gained 97 seats, while Labour and the Liberal Democrats lost 91 and 5 seats, respectively.