I can’t think of a great deal more to say, except that it is worth noting that the Conservatives are celebrating wildly losing 2,000 of the votes they had at the General Election. It was great to see the New Labour betrayers getting almost totally deserted by their followers, and instructive that the LIBDems also lost a third of their vote.
The real lesson is that the total vote for the three “Main parties” fell from 42,000 votes at the general election to 23,000 now, with each of them shedding votes. That is a profound statistic. The political landscape is indeed shifting sharply, even if my own efforts to affect it were rubbish. Tory braying is futile and shallow.
In this “great victory”, 18% of the electorate voted for them. I know form doostep experience that many of those who stayed at home were not merely apathetic, but actively hostile.
I agree – we do need STV Paul. The problem is to get STV we need parties that are for STV to win an election. That might not be completely impossible if there’s a coalition govt at the next election though.
I was intrigued by the counting being undertaken the next day rather than immediately after the polls. Can you tell me what security was applied to the ballot boxes and how all parties including minor parties could be assured that what was counted was not tampered with?
I dread to think that this was actually the case, but voting fraud is widespread in the USA and other countries. For example, the french results in the last European election seem decidedly odd considering what some french people were telling me. And let’s not even go there on the Italian side!
I much appreciate your blog, by the way.
I agree with all of John Hemming’s (Lib Dem MP) post of July 24, 7.12pm, except the last sentence. Why don’t you join the Green Party (not the Lib Dems). You’d fit in perfectly – have you looked at the Green’s foreign & defence policies? eg. opposition to the attacks on Afghanistan & Iraq, unilateral nuclear disarmament, reduced defence spending, Britain pulling out of NATO …