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Despite only winning 34% of the vote, Labour claimed a huge majority in the General Election which could lead to questions regarding over the UK's First Past the Post system. So was this really the least democratic vote in British political history?
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voters: “no, you can’t just maintain a system that benefits you at the cost of democracy”
labour and tories: “womp womp”
It’s screwed over labour for years in Scotland without which they had slim to nil chance of winning, so it comes and goes.
But on the other hand same voters vote primarily for those same 2 parties.
@@soundscape26 yeah because of tactical voting, had we had a proportional system or even multiple member constituences, it may be different
@@soundscape26Because they hate the other and would rather vote for the most popular party that disagrees with the one they hate, then the less popular party that they like the most.
Womp not word
Should.
But won’t.
That’s exactly it.
Depends on what you want to replace it with. Straight PR is even less democratic in practice, no matter how much small parties want to gaslight us into thinking otherwise. There are other systems that are probably better, but it isn’t anything like as clear-cut as ‘FPTP bad, PR good’ as some would like to make it out. The details of how the systems are set up make a HUGE difference.
Probably won’t, but they might make some moves in that direction. Keir Starmer will be aware that a large majority (like the one gained by Boris Johnson) doesn’t mean you can’t be thrashed at the next election, so reaching out to the Lib Dems and/or Greens by reforming the system could prove to be in Labour’s interests in the longer term. It’s certainly not a given, but I wouldn’t rule it out.
@@johnpotts8308 Seems unlikely. Coalition governments historically aren’t very popular with voters, and if PR were implemented, the Labour Party would probably be at serious risk of breaking up. It was only the political realities of our FPTP system that really kept it together in the latter part of the Corbyn era.
Muslims will now swarm into the UK after assurances from their man Starmer.
I don’t like Farage, Reform, their candidates or their politics – in fact I’m on the opposite end of the political spectrum – but getting just 5 seats for 4 million votes is crazy.
It’s grossly immoral too.
Honestly it’s terrifying that he has a legitimate chance of winning the next election
Yes I’m such a leftie but the fact that some of us would argue that FPTP is good just so that it keeps out ‘extremists’ like Reform (who mind you 14.7% ppl voted for) is ridiculous, we should all accept the fact that FPTP is just not a viable method of voting anymore and cannot accurately represent the people (yk like how a democracy is supposed to work)
My favourite part of this election is that now the few anti-electoral reform people I know can’t just make the “you’re only saying that because Labour loses under FPTP”. Labour won, and I still want electoral reform. Reform lost out massively under FPTP, and I still want electoral reform. Because it’s not about making my ‘side’ perform better in elections, it’s about making democracy matter, and making sure everybody has their voices heard, even if they use their voice exclusively to say homophobic and racial slurs.
What about when Corbyn lost even though he won a huge share of the vote?
you should have pointed out that reform got 14percent of the vote, while lib dems got 12, and reform got 4 seats but lib dems got 71…… couldn’t be any more undemocratic
Yeah. We should probably switch to a system like STV so we get to keep our constituencies, but don’t have to worry about parties coming in 2nd place in a lot of areas but getting no seats.
areas chose that way
Doesn’t mattah, reform ah bayud.
Sho dey should nut win
Yeah but areas actually wanted a lib dem to represent them, I wouldn’t want a toff millionaire crying about boats to represent my area, because they are just in it for themselves to score cheap points and increase the value of their company.
The Lib dems received 12.2% of the votes and ended up with 11% of the seats. As a matter of fact, they were the party with the most reflective seat count of the vote share.
Unfortunately Labour and the Conservatives have no plans on doing away with FPTP the entire time it benefits them.
Exactly, and even if a party like reform or the lib Dems won an election in this system, they will soon change their mind about implementing PR.
Exactly, and even if a party like reform or the lib Dems won an election in this system, they will soon change their mind about implementing PR.
Exactly, and even if a party like reform or the lib Dems won an election in this system, they will soon change their mind about implementing PR.
The only way they´ll do it, is if they think it might cost them seats or an election.
Fortunately Lib Dems and greens (and reform unfortunately) are gaining more power and they are all in favour of pr
It’s crazy that reform got half of the votes that labour did and only got FIVE SEATS
cus they didnt win many areas. having a bunch of dumb people in every area vote for you doesn’t mean you should rule an area, they need to win it
They actually only got 41% of Labour’s vote. But your point is still valid in my opinion.
@@True_Heretic dude you know what i mean
@@True_Heretic akshualy ☝🤓
@@kostas0352 41 vs 50 makes a big difference over millions
The thing I find the most hilarious is that CGP Grey made a video that came out 9 years ago about how the UK’s electoral system, in the aftermath of the 2015 general election, during which the Tories got a majority of seats. The Tories didn’t fix anything during those 9 years, and now their opposition, labour have a vast majority.
The system is DESIGNED to benefit Tories. The fact that today benefited Labor is a huge neon sign of how bad shape Tories are in… so of course they would never in your dreams change it! It’s like asking the Republicans to change it or the EC in the USA…
That’s why I think Labour should change the system now that they got the rare chance… they are normally the victims of it.
@@TheAlchaemist LOL no they aren’t Labour was in charge from 1997 to 2010 that’s 13 years. Then 14 years of Conservatives.
the conservatives have been in power for something like 75 of the last 100 years @@Ushio01
@@pinkblake 63 years to 37 years. And? Labour gets in makes everything far, far worse then get voted out.
There is a reason Labour was kicked to the curb for 14 years after 13 years of Labour and that was mild new Labour not the leftist nutters that were the leaders before and after Harold Wilson and James Callaghan.
Of the last 25 general elections excluding this years that go back to 1924 it’s 10 for Labour and 15 for the Conservatives.
Both have called early elections due to issues of lack of faith by the public with Labour having them more often.
Every Reform MP represents 822,857 voters while every DUP MP represents only 34,410 voters. Seems like a difference that is a bit too big.
I do think a system like AMS would probably be a better solution than PR, since we do need the Northern Irish, Scots and Welsh to have their own regional representation [as well as the different parts of England ofc] on top of a more proportional representation.
@@henrrryyyyi agree henryyyyy
Maybe Reform MPs should cast 822,857 votes in the division lobby and DUP members cast 34,410 – like card votes at the TUC, or shareholders’ votes. Then it’s less important how many MOs there are, the voters still get represented. And it would keep the constituency link.
No. Reform MP doesn’t represent 822k votes.
The Reform MP represents their own constituency and that it. No one else.
FPTP is a devolved voting system where MPs aren’t elected per total votes in a country but per votes in a given constituency.
It prevents extremist shifts on a national level.
@@AlecBradyGet rid of the house of lords and instead the upper chamber is represented by a proportional vote. That way the house of commons represents constituencies while the house of lords represents the nationwide proportional vote.
Surprisingly, Reform UK had a better voter per seat ratio than UKIP. 3.5 million votes and one seat.
forgot they existed lol
forgot they existed lol
@@SuhbanIoThis was in 2015. UKIP today are a minor party.
@@dertery8724 I know
We’ll never escape this two party nightmare unless there is electoral reform
The two party system will never allow for electoral reform.
Oy vey! Stop noticing things!
Vote lib dem next time. If labour is forced into coalition with the lib dems then the lib dems would be fools to not make electoral reform a prerequisite for coalition.
@@dars1961 The closest (and probably once-in-a-lifetime) chance the UK had, was the 2011 referendum after the 2010 election resulted in a coalition with the Pro-electoral reform LibDems (extremely unlikely with FPTP as is). Sure, that wasn’t exactly on proportional representation, but a step in the right direction. Sadly, the voters fumbled it.
@@ripvanwinkle6557 oh God im gonna nooootice ahhhhhh!!!!!!!
It’s not right that so many people in this country feel their vote doesn’t matter, or, that they must vote tactically.
It’s not right that Labour automatically get into power because the “other party” destroyed themselves.
It’s not right that so much support doesn’t lead to actual representation in parliament.
It’s not right that the UK is almost the only country in Europe still with this system.
It’s not right, it’s time we got it rid of it.
from what I understand, we have basically the same thing here in France, except without first-past-the-post retardation
Reminds me of, here in Canada, our current government had promised to get rid of FPTP but when they only got a majority thanks to FPTP, they magically stopped talking about it.
Trudeau appeared to favour ranked ballots, but the Special Committee on Electoral Reform came down on the side of PR which was… awkward… since it meant the chance of another Liberal majority in the foreseeable future was remote. So he backtracked. If he hadn’t, and had gone with some form of PR, the Liberals would be in a lot better position than they find themselves now.
Thats because all the Liberals do is talk about fairness and representation and the majority of Canadians, all while doing everything they can to not be fair, represent every day Canadians and the will of the people. They are too busy giving money to friends, raising taxes and virtue signaling to ever care about democracy.
I like our system in Canada. No system is perfect and I like having an MP.
@@Ironguy-gm6vfMy friend there are systems like mixed-member proportional that allows local representation whilst still having proportional partisan representation.
@@zahzuhzay6533 All PR does is break down the members of the party into different parties, nothing changes. All it does is encourage partisanship and no compromise because if you disagree on some minor issue you make a new party. The less parties the better
Think about this. _Only one in six Brit voted for labour._
They got one out of three votes, but with turnout of around 50%, that means that roughly speaking only one out of six people in Britain voted labour.
it looks bad when you include the turnout but it isn’t really fair to include it
think about this. 1 in every 2 brits dont care.
@@breazfreind402 I think a lot of them do care, but they don’t see a viable option due to the two party system. Parliaments with more proportional representation always have better turnout.
@@PGATProductions I think it is somewhat fair to included because the low turnout is caused by a lot of people not liking either candidates, and not seeing the point in voting on a smaller party that doesn’t stand a chance anyway. Some aren’t voting because they don’t care, but a lot aren’t voting because they can’t find anyone they could stand behind.
Only one in 3 votes for Brexit…give or take
New Zealand did change its election system 32 years ago.
And as much as it gave Winston Peters way too much power, it has overall been pretty ok
And Australia way back in 1918. Ironically it was a conservative government which did it to prevent splitting their votes with other conservative parties and allowing the Labor party to take otherwise conservative seats.
NZ took 2 parties to sleepwalk into it as they thought they could use the issue to get elected and not implement it. Had they both did what the UK and Canada did, there’d have been no reform.
If it was really “country first, party second”, they’d push electoral reform immediately
No, because then reform would get more seats and that’s bad for party and country
@@Racing_Fox413 In PR Reform would get more seats but so would other parties, only Labour and the Conservatives would really suffer.
@@FNB-ih8cc yeah but reform would have just under half what Labour have. Its not good
@@Racing_Fox413 So what you’re saying is you tentatively support democracy when you stand to benefit. If you do not benefit you do not support it
@@danuk500 if it creates a system where local issues aren’t represented but a dangerous extremist party is then no I don’t support it
Yes it is. Winning a seat with 27% is crazy…
Everyone is so focused on the Labour vs Torie fight they have ignored how much of a monumental blow this has been for the SNP.
They got less votes mainly becuade of the controversy around Nicola Stugeon and the subsequent changing of their leader
“slightly underperformed the polls” is a wee bit of an understatement, no? They got 33.8% and polled generally in the 42-46% range. That’s a massive underperformance not explained by voters staying home, which definitely occurred on the Tory side too.
They were polling at about 38% in the last few days (that number having fallen from highs above 40%), and polls typically have a +/- 3% error anyway.
@@alphamikeomega5728they still fell way short based on your analysis
Everyone just voted Labour, and they won because their entire reasoning was “We’re not the Tories.”
They didn’t though – Labour barely increased their vote share from 2019 and actually won with their lowest vote share ever.
Labour didn’t win because ‘everyone just voted Labour’ – they won because people jumped ship from the Tories to Reform – thus removing Labour’s only viable oppoisition.
@@eljay5009Frix is right. Only 5% of the people who voted for ‘Labour’ only voted for them for their manifesto.
The unfortunate reality of FPTP is that the more people support smaller parties the more big parties win