Rigging the Vote (13/02/15)

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I enjoyed this section of John Rentoul's opinion column in The Independent the other day which features a table from the psephologist, John Curtice, showing the effects of the number of Westminster seats the SNP will take if the party continues to enjoy a lead over Scottish Labour on polling day - 7 May.

Now I'll be voting to get rid of the Labour 'deadwood' whatever happens, but the figures that jumped out to me were not the ones with the SNP 5%, 10% or 15% ahead - rather it was the  0% figure which illustrates what would happen if the two parties were neck and neck with the same share of the popular vote.

So what the table is really showing is how unfair the Westminster First Past The Post (FPTP) voting systems is because with the exact same share of the vote Scottish Labour would win more than twice as many seats as the SNP.

Which is another good reason for not supporting Labour on 7 May because the party had 13 years of unbroken rule at Westminster (with a majority of MPs) when it could easily have reformed the system, yet did nothing as on so many other issues.

John Rentoul - The Independent

5. Following yesterday’s shock slump in the SNP’s lead over Labour (I was joking, but the Scottish Daily Mail actually used the headline, “Poll lifeline for Labour as SNP support slides”, although the fieldwork for TNS was carried out at the same time as other polls showing larger leads), Prof John Curtice has provided a ready reckoner for turning the SNP lead over Labour into seats in Scotland. Cut out and keep (or click and bookmark). 


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