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What are your questions, about the Election?
Former Member
Lyrical PosterPosts: 5,462 Part of The Furniture
Yo dudes :wave:
As it's the general election next week, and with everyone talking about policies and parties everywhere and in the news it has made me realise that I don't actually know to much about politics.
I thought it would be cool to start a thread where we can ask questions about politics to hopefully help us understand more about it all, for those of us who may be confused about it all. I for one would like to understand more about it all.
I have researched what different parties are proposing for childcare, there is quite a few about offering a set number of free hours to children aged three and four, and extending hours for all 2 year olds.
As I currently work in childcare and it's something that I am very passionate about, I would like to understand more about the different parties.
So my question to start this thread is...
For childcare issues, who would be best to vote for, and what is the difference between them all?
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? Build a free but voluntary universal early education and childcare service for all children from birth until compulsory education age, which we would raise to 7 years.
? Integrate this into the local education service, run by local education authorities, and build on existing infant schools. Local
authorities would be would be given freedom as to how to do so in the light of their local circumstances
?Ensure that the system includes children?s centres for the very youngest children and their parents, and childcare and early education for children from age 1.
?Ensure that those who lead early years education are qualified teachers with qualified teacher status and with specialist knowledge of early years education; and ensure all other staff are qualified to level 3.
?Encourage parents to participate in helping to run the service.
? Ensure that parents would receive much increased Child Benefit from 2016 and would continue to receive
Statutory Maternity and Paternity Pay.
Labour:
We will extend free childcare from 15 to 25 hours for working parents with three and four-year-olds paid for by an increase in the bank levy. This will benefit nearly half a million three and four-year-olds and their families and help parents overcome the barriers to getting back to work or working more hours.
We will introduce a primary childcare guarantee ? a legal guarantee that parents of primary-aged children can access childcare from 8am to 6pm through their local school, helping families tackle the logistical nightmare that before- and after-school childcare can become.
We will double paid paternity leave for fathers from two to four weeks so they can spend time with their children, helping more than 400,000 families a year, and raise paternity pay by more than £100 a week to at least £260 a week ? the equivalent of the minimum wage ? so that working Dads can afford to take time off.
We will save Sure Start and tackle the shortage of childcare places by doubling the number available at Sure Start centres ? at least 50,000 more places ? and ensure Children's Centres are properly used rather than being mothballed.
Torys:
state-subsidised childcare for three and four year-olds would be doubled to 30 hours a week.
UKIP:
Honour existing childcare voucher and tax-free childcare schemes
Extend these existing schemes to informal, non-Ofsted registered childminders
Offer wrap-around childcare before and after school for every school-age child
Amend planning legislation to ensure more nurseries are built to expand childcare places
Give parents easy access to emergency childcare through their local authority
Legislate for an initial presumption of 50-50 shared parenting in child residency matters, and give grandparents visiting rights
Initiate a thorough review of childcare and child safeguarding systems.
Plaid Cymru: Couldn't find any mention of childcare in the manifesto
SNP: back 30 hrs a week free childcare for 3-4 year olds and eligable 2 year olds.
The benefit of this system is that it is simple: simple to operate and simple to understand. The problem is that the Government is the party with the most MPs, and not necessarily the most votes overall.
Each MP is voted on a simple majority basis. In some constituencies the margins can be very tight: the Winchester seat in 1997 was won by a margin of 14 votes, and in 2010 Fermanagh was settled by just four votes. In some other constituencies it isn't close at all, as one party is much more popular than all the others (in my current constituency the Tory MP won in 2010 by 14,000 votes).
This means that an individual vote in a "marginal" constituency like Winchester is very influential, as only a small number of people voting differently will see a different result. But in a "safe" constituency an individual vote is not very influential at all, as it would take tens of thousands of people to vote differently to get a different result.
Generally the three big parties know which of their seats are "safe" and which are "marginal", and it is the marginal seats which decide the General Election. So not only do the people in a marginal seat have a much more influential vote in their local area, they have a much more influential vote nationally.
"Losing" votes are discarded under FPTP, so it is theoretically possible that one party could win 326 seats all by a single vote, whilst the losing parties all win with majorities in the tens of thousands. Even though the other parties got more votes, they didn't get more MPs, so they lose the election. It isn't the number of votes you get nationally that makes a difference, it's how many you get in the marginal constituencies. There are about 75-80 marginal constituencies which will decide the election, out of a total of about 650.
Basically, if you live in a marginal constituency then your vote will go a long way to deciding the General Election. If you live in a safe constituency then your vote will decide bugger all.
Thanks
It's so confusing, for my little brain. But I am learning a bit more about it all.