We should switch the polling day to a weekend, so people who work in the week get a fair chance to get to the polling station.

The reports I heard last night, and followed up this morning, worry me. As a country, we seem to have lost the ability to organise anything properly.

Hm, a curious situation.

On the one hand Labour get first dibs but would need the LibDems and numerous other parties to form a coalition.

On the other hand the Tories could then, if that fails, try and form a minority Government. Trouble is it would essentially be an English Government as they have no support anywhere else and I can't see that as being beneficial for any of us in the current climate.

Interesting. It's a lose-lose-lose situation.

I can see another election within 6 months.

Edit: Orrrrr.... The LibDems and Labour have over 50% of the popular vote. There could be the suggestion of a reform to the election procedure and then an immediate election using the new format.

Who the feck knows?

And another thing. It also show the farcical nature of the system when an unelected monarch could, in theory, have a say. 'Unelected' and 'Democracy', how does that work exactly?

To be fair, I'd rather she weighed in and gave an opinion.

That would give people who didn't vote a chance to. Although there would probably be a record non-turnout.

I'm absolutely staggered that people were turned away. In this day and age, it's absolutely unforgivable.

Currently, there are still 35 constituencies to declare, but Labour + LibDem alliance would result in 298 seats to the Conservative 290 at the present moment.

However, the sum total of LabLibDem votes is over 14.5 million compared to just over 10 million for the blues. 36.1% to the blues but 52.3 to the "alliance"

If another eight constituencies declared for the conservatives now, I can't see that closing an almost 4.5 million gap.

It does show how complicated things are- It is quite possible that the Conservatives will have the most seats even compared to a Lab/LibDem alliance and yet still have substantially less share of the vote.

It's no wonder that people want electoral reform.

EDIT- A quick flick around the constituencies yet to declare shows a good share between the three parties at the last election- It's not as though they were all red, blue or yellow in 2005

Well, the bins were still collected. So that's something.

Indeed. Though how one polling station ran out of voting papers is equally baffling.

How the Tories can insist on being government when a Lib-Lab pact would have far more votes in its favour? Proportional representation may mean that we have coalitions from now on but that is not such a bad thing if it stops us doing stupid things like the Digital Economy Bill or going to war.

Of course that assumption is that all those who voted for Labour and the libs wanted a coalition and want a coalition with each other. I know many libs that despise Labour as much as some despise the Conservatives.
This just shows the weakness of voting for a party system, once they have your vote they are free to ignore you until the next election.



Though one question about PR, how do we retain the link with the constituency? Are we to have the sight of a list of representatives that will become a hotbed of croynism?
What about those small parties that get say 5% of the overall vote do they get seats to be truly representative? The BNP would get around 9-10 MPs

They could be assigned, you can have NG.

Yes but when you consider how bad the economy is and the how badly Gordon did in the debates, shows that the Tories still do not have a credible policy overall. Much of the Tory policy was based on fear. Yes it will be bad but if you cannot offer hope you do not deserve to run the country.

Or that Labour supporters are complete and utter sheep.

I have this theory that mass hypnosis was used to force people to vote for something they wouldn't normally vote for. They get in the booth, go to put their cross next to their preferred candidate, only to find the pen magically drawn to another box...

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I think I need some stronger coffee, and an early night tonight.

I know what you mean, it took all my will power not to vote green, I've no idea why!