Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/05/labours-keir-starmer-is-the-uks-new-prime-minister.html
…
11 Likes
“Lefties drifted to the Liberal Democrats, who won a record 71 seats in Parliament on 13% of the vote, and to the Greens, whose 4 seats represents 7% of the vote—a unexpectedly strong performance for a party that barely figured in the last election.”
Does this mean that despite having only 7% of the nationwide vote, the Greens only have 4 seats, but that with not even double that total %, the Liberal Democrats won 71?
Would that mean that certain districts voted overwhelmingly for a party ,but then they had scan support elsewhere?
Is gerrymandering a thing in the UK like it is in the USA?
7 Likes
Conservative’s policy of “Austerity”, was never anything more than punishing the poor people for the mistakes of the rich people. Labour can’t do worse than the Conservatives have done.
12 Likes
Gerrymandering is not a thing here. This is just the outcome of first past the post elections. A party whose votes are spread across many different constituencies (districts) will have nothing to show for the votes it got in constituencies it didn’t come first in.
Constituency boundaries are set by the boundary commssions, which are not controlled by parties.
19 Likes
Change without hope?
13 Likes
We’re hoping it’s not a shitshow.
20 Likes
Even more dramatically, the F̶a̶s̶c̶ Reform Party also only received 4 seats, while getting 500k more votes that LibDem with their 71 seats. Which shows that the first past the post system suppresses all smaller parties, unless their supporters and those of politically adjacent parties vote tactically. Fortunately, for now both Reform and Tories are too full of themselves to do so…
source: UK election results 2024 | Constituency map - BBC News
17 Likes
Fuck, Wes Streeting is health secretary.
Trans people had better be prepared to continue the fight as if nothing has changed.
29 Likes
There’s some encouraging news.
Also good!
17 Likes
I’m curious as to whether “Just Stop Oil” had any effect on the elections.
6 Likes
Given the strong showing among Greens, they may have; just not in the direction “concerned” centrists believed it would.
13 Likes
I respectfully disagree with this.
Gerrymandering, as far as I know, isn’t just about moving border-lines.
This was the first General election in UK history that required photo ID.
Which means you have to be able to afford a passport or a driving-licence. Alternatively, an over-60’s Oyster Card (UK travel card) will do, but not an Oyster Card for anyone younger. Student cards are not valid ID.
I know Labour wants to lower the voting age to 16, as younger people tend more likely to vote Labour, but voter ID is aimed at knobbling the younger vote - this is another form of gerrymandering, as far as I am concerned.
My friend Pete is in his fifties, has never owned a car, last had a passport in his twenties, and therefore was cut out of the vote.
I know, he could have applied for the postal vote - but doesn’t a postal vote simply prove how much bullshit voter ID really is?
22 Likes
12 Likes
As an American, the UK elections and political system simply baffles me and most of the time I have no idea what’s going on. (Not saying our elections or political system are any better, mind you.) That being said, the outcomes here seem to be very positive especially in the wake of the broader far-right shift across Europe. It’s good to see some uplifting news given the various recent shit shows across the world.
9 Likes
Technically, it is. Voter ID ratfucking falls under voter suppression, parallel but distinct from gerrymandering. That’s why in the US, gerrymandering directly affects US House elections, which are based on districts within a state, but only indirectly affects US Senate elections, which are state wide.
Gerrymandering indirectly effects Senate races through voter suppression as a result of disproportional representation in state government and subsequent gerrymandering.
16 Likes
I sit corrected, I must have conflated the two terms.
I had this source:
But then, this source also, which is provided by Darth ThinSidious:
So I’ve no defense here… 
Edited for missed opportunity!
12 Likes
Well Rees-Mogg understands fuck-all, so not your fault.
22 Likes
But he knows lots of big words…
/s
18 Likes
I am praying to a god that I don’t believe in that this assertion won’t age really, really badly.
I mean, yes, you would think it would be impossible for any party to do more harm than the Conservatives have already done, but it’s 2024 and all bets are off.
15 Likes
