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How much power does your vote really have?

BillieTheBotBillieTheBot Posts: 8,721 Bot
in Politics & Debate
An interesting and thought provoking website on the UK voting system, and how 'worthy' a person's vote is in their constituency:

http://www.voterpower.org.uk/

In my constituency (Streatham), it seems individual votes are worth far less than their face value.
Beep boop. I'm a bot.
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Comments

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    "the equivalent of 0.050 votes." for me, great.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ooooh! I have nearly twice the power as you....

    0.098
    Constituency marginality

    Very safe
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    mine said ultra safe, similarly, great.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ultrasafe - 0.056

    1992 Con
    1997 Con
    2001 Con
    2005 Con

    ergh
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    0.030 whatever that means
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    0.046 ultra safe tory seat
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    0.445 for Norwich South.

    Hopefully we can paint the south of the city green :)

    Edit: Just checked out Norwich North and it says it's a very safe Labour seat. Obviously didn't take into account that the Conservatives won the by-election last year...
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Apparently both of mine (Canterbury and Braintree) are ~0.1, safe Tory seats.

    Huzzah...
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    0.107 safe Labour seat.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    0.041 ultrasafe lib dem seat... I can live with that
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    1.07

    Although I think in reality it's more than that. It's been a Labour seat since 1992, but our long-serving MP is stepping down, and it was already identified as a key battleground for the two big parties before that happened, because the last local elections put the Tories in power.

    Unfortunately for me, none of this matters, because I have no intention of voting for either of the only two that have a chance of winning.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I think i'm registered in two constituencies, so I get to choose whether to add my vote in a safely Tory seat (0.16 I think ) or a margin lib dem seat (0.6). So I think i'll vote in the marginal!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Franki wrote: »
    Apparently both of mine (Canterbury and Braintree) are ~0.1, safe Tory seats.

    Huzzah...

    Canterbury has been Tory since the 1860s. Yet I still get out of bed to vote.

    Who's the fool here?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Voters in Finchley & Golders Green have 3.76x more voting power</SPAN> than the UK average.

    I am still not voting. :thumb:
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    MoK wrote: »
    Canterbury has been Tory since the 1860s. Yet I still get out of bed to vote.

    Who's the fool here?
    Never said I wasn't going to vote, did I ;)?

    Speaking of which, I should actually register before it's too late...
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    0.343 for me, I've got 1.36x more voting power than the average.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    1 vote is worth one vote. Its still the same one vote, so I dont think its value can change depending on how all the other little votes are used.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I dont think the way people vote in this country is right in the first place.

    If you have 100 people and 30 vote for Labour , 30 vote for Conservative and 40 vote for Lib Dems then the Lib Dems would be in power even though 60% of the people did not want them, how can that be fair?

    By the way vote Labour :thumb:
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Voter power in Exeter

    0.138
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Louisek wrote: »
    I dont think the way people vote in this country is right in the first place.

    If you have 100 people and 30 vote for Labour , 30 vote for Conservative and 40 vote for Lib Dems then the Lib Dems would be in power even though 60% of the people did not want them, how can that be fair?

    By the way vote Labour :thumb:

    They are the single party with the most votes.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Louisek wrote: »
    If you have 100 people and 30 vote for Labour , 30 vote for Conservative and 40 vote for Lib Dems then the Lib Dems would be in power even though 60% of the people did not want them, how can that be fair?

    They might be 'in power' but they would be effectively 'powerless'. They would have to win at least 11% of the oppositions vote when passing bills which will make them toothless. They have to get at least 51% to be able to push through any new laws so it would be a hung parliament with the Lib Dems trying to form a coalition.

    But in essence you are right. If the Lib Dems won by 51%, even the remaining 49% is not an insignificant number of people.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Franki wrote: »
    Never said I wasn't going to vote, did I ;)?

    Speaking of which, I should actually register before it's too late...

    I meant that I was the fool. Fighting against the odds, in a consituency where more than 55% vote against the candidate that sits on our behalf.

    150 years of Tory MP...
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    0.059 ultra safe, wow... interesting.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Voters in Liverpool Wavertree have 1.51x more voting power than the UK average. - 0.382 - Fairly safe
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    0.042 for Chelsea & Fulham, ultra safe Tory seat.

    Absolutely fine by me :)

    The seat at the home of Ma and Pa T is slightly less safe, what with the incumbent being Mark Oaten...
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    0.057 ultra safe which is a shame

    Myabe i should stand next time :crazyeyes
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Louisek wrote: »
    I dont think the way people vote in this country is right in the first place.

    If you have 100 people and 30 vote for Labour , 30 vote for Conservative and 40 vote for Lib Dems then the Lib Dems would be in power even though 60% of the people did not want them, how can that be fair?

    By the way vote Labour :thumb:
    I don't know how true it is and I don't have any links to back it up, but I was told recently most general elections in this country really are decided by no more than 10-20 thousand voters: namely those part of certain marginal constituencies.

    A party could have hundreds of thousands (if not a million or two) more votes than another and still lose, if all those extra votes were cast in the 'wrong' constituencies.

    The advantage of the British system is that it all but eliminates the prospect of having a fragmented parliament a la Germany or Italy... but the downside is that of all the democratic systems, it is one of the least democratic ones. You have to be sorry for the Lib Dems in particular.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Aladdin wrote: »
    The advantage of the British system is that it all but eliminates the prospect of having a fragmented parliament a la Germany or Italy... but the downside is that of all the democratic systems, it is one of the least democratic ones. You have to be sorry for the Lib Dems in particular.

    I'm not sure that's true (or at least their is a flipside). Under PR you get Government's nobody voted for and it gives disproportionate power to certain parties who can act as kingmakers. You might for example vote Labour because you believe that they're the only ones who are dealing with terrorist threats with ID cards and 42 day detention, but as part of a deal with the Lib Dems this is dropped and your vote has been used to put a political coalition you don't agree with.

    Both FTP and PR have advantages and disadvantages, but PR isn't more democratic.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It's a general election ...are we voting for a general?
    This democracy mlarky has become a bit of a joke.
    I want a hung parliament.
    That way we have weak government ...a government that can't rush off to war ...one that can't make up ever more fucking rules so easily ...can't do this can't do that.
    I don't vote for people to legislate against my fucking lifestyle ...my private life.
    Once you vote them in ...they take that as a mandate to ride rough shod over you.
    Once they are in ...they do all manner of shit in your name cos ...you asked them to represent you ...represent your point of view ...your ideals.
    Bollox.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I know, people argue against PR because it creates a "weak government" as if that's a bad thing. A government that has to work hard to convince others of the right course of action. A government that actually has to engage with people of a different opinion in a meaningful way more than once every 5 years. Yeah, sounds shit that. :rolleyes:
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