Goats and Votes
I wrote recently about the Scottish goat which predicted the outcome of the American Presidential election.
And while Trump has been declared the winner (allegedly with the help of Vladimir Putin) , the goat was correct in the sense that Hillary Clinton did win the 'popular vote' - i.e. the total of all votes cast across all 52 American states.
But the Presidential election is decided by an 'electoral college' which is similar, in some ways, to the UK's 'first past the post' system for Westminster elections in as much as the outcome is not proportional, so the winner takes all in individual states.
Although how a goat is supposed to know all that beats me, so as far as I'm concerned he made a damned good call.
So good in fact that Hillary Clinton's lead just keeps growing and here are the latest voting share figures:
Clinton 48.2% (65,788,583 votes in total)
Trump 46.1% (62,955,363 votes in total) Others 5.7%
I wonder if the powers that be could arrange a meeting between the goat (whose name I don't know, sadly) and Donald Trump when the President next visits Scotland.
I'd pay good money to see that.
Scottish Goat Nails It (10/11/16)
A goat in Scotland hit the news headlines the other day when it 'called' the American presidential election for Hillary Clinton
Like many people, the goat had to eat his words in the early hours of Wednesday morning as the voting returns delivered a surprised victory for Donald Trump.
So the goat seemed to have blown his 15 minutes of fame as Trump basked in his victory by 279 votes to Hillary Clinton's 228.
But on closer examination maybe the goat was right after all because the 279 to 228 represents the votes cast in the electoral college that is used for American presidential elections, whereby candidates 'win' individual states.
However in terms of the popular vote Hillary Clinton won the votes of 59,938,290 individual Americans (48%) while her rival Donald Trump won the support of only 59,704,836 citizens.
And on the basis that a goat in Scotland can;t be expected to know the difference between 'popular vote' and an 'electoral college', I say the horny-headed beast has done a fine damn job.
Like many people, the goat had to eat his words in the early hours of Wednesday morning as the voting returns delivered a surprised victory for Donald Trump.
So the goat seemed to have blown his 15 minutes of fame as Trump basked in his victory by 279 votes to Hillary Clinton's 228.
But on closer examination maybe the goat was right after all because the 279 to 228 represents the votes cast in the electoral college that is used for American presidential elections, whereby candidates 'win' individual states.
However in terms of the popular vote Hillary Clinton won the votes of 59,938,290 individual Americans (48%) while her rival Donald Trump won the support of only 59,704,836 citizens.
And on the basis that a goat in Scotland can;t be expected to know the difference between 'popular vote' and an 'electoral college', I say the horny-headed beast has done a fine damn job.
