UK Elections 2014

[Jubal]

European elections in a couple of days!

Currently looking like our anti-European nutcase party might win. 

[Othko97]

I hope not :-/ Anyone else see that interview of him with James O'Brien?

[TTG4]

I hope not :-/ Anyone else see that interview of him with James O'Brien?

Complete car-crash. The trouble is that he's taken a populist line, which has combined with the general distrust of politicians at the moment to give them a huge advantage. I doubt that anything could turn the tide now, though there's always hope they'll go the way of the BNP.

[Jubal]

Okay, the EU elections use the d'Hondt system. The d'Hondt system is fun!

Basically you have a big-ass constituency, say East of England. This place elects 7 MEPs.

You vote for parties, not candidates. What you then do is take the percentages, say:
UKIP 30
LAB 20
CON 18
LD 10
GRN 8

Each party then scores what it scored, and half that, and a third that, and a quarter that, and so on, so:

UKIP 30 15 10 7.5
LAB 20 10 6.6
CON 18 9 6
LD 10 5 3.3
GRN 8 4

Then you pick the top seven scores
UKIP 30 15 10 7.5
LAB 20 10 6.6
CON 18 9 6
LD 10 5 3.3
GRN 8 4

And so in this case UKIP get 3 MEPs, Labour 2, Tories and Lib Dems 1.

Does that make sense?

[Pentagathus]

It does indeed. Presumably makes it difficult for independent candidates to be elected.

[Jubal]

Yes, though they still can be, they just count as a list of one person (so if in the below example Jonny Independent had 12% of the vote he'd have got a seat). I think more generally independents are rarely elected in systems with huge area seats, as usually to be elected as an independent you need to be personally known in an area.

[TTG4]

Okay, the EU elections use the d'Hondt system. The d'Hondt system is fun!

Basically you have a big-ass constituency, say East of England. This place elects 7 MEPs.

You vote for parties, not candidates. What you then do is take the percentages, say:
UKIP 30
LAB 20
CON 18
LD 10
GRN 8

Each party then scores what it scored, and half that, and a third that, and a quarter that, and so on, so:

UKIP 30 15 10 7.5
LAB 20 10 6.6
CON 18 9 6
LD 10 5 3.3
GRN 8 4

Then you pick the top seven scores
UKIP 30 15 10 7.5
LAB 20 10 6.6
CON 18 9 6
LD 10 5 3.3
GRN 8 4

And so in this case UKIP get 3 MEPs, Labour 2, Tories and Lib Dems 1.

Does that make sense?

So I just remembered a leaflet the greens circulated a few weeks ago. They were saying they only needed 1% more of the vote to get a seat, which not knowing the full ins and outs of it I thought seemed accurate. But from what you say here it seems they're just cynically spinning the fact that most people don't know the full story just that it's some sort of proportional system. Sneaky.

Also I really hope UKIP don't do as well as you suggest, but I fear they will... Though if they do they'll probably collapse at the general again, after all, Farrage said on Today he would 'do a deal with the devil to get a referendum', I doubt that'll be popular, considering how much hate the lib dems got for going into coalition with the tories.

[Pentagathus]

For anyone who wants a laugh check out the BNP representatives for scotland:
http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/2015guide/scotland-european-candidates-2014/

[TTG4]

For anyone who wants a laugh check out the BNP representatives for scotland:
http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/2015guide/scotland-european-candidates-2014/

Who the heck are 'Britain first' and why does their logo look like a confectionary bar?

[Pentagathus]

A BNP offshoot, ie a bunch of moronic ballbags.

[Jubal]

Re Britain First: They have a very popular Facebook page, which they've built up rather cleverly by having popular meme posts (eg "We need to support our soldiers, like and share if you agree!"). Their key backer is the guy who used to be in charge of BNP fundraising and it looks like they're working very hard on raising cash. I've seen it suggested that they may in fact be partly a moneymaking front as they're plugging donations very hard despite having almost no candidates. It's also odd that they're only standing in Wales and Scotland, which are hardly the best parts of the UK for the far right.

[Jubal]

Now in new separate topic format!

I may geek out at you with bits of news as news happens

[Gen_Glory]

Am in east of england, can't vote atm because they are using my little brother's school as a polling station so I have to look after him at home :/

Won't be surprised if UKIP get majority in east of england.

Did you guys hear about the UKIP youth leader resigning?
The ex leader of the UKIP youth wing said in a public resignation that she was leaving Ukip because abandoned its core supporters and now appealed to the “stupidity of ignorant anti-immigrant voters for electoral gain”.

[Gen_Glory]

Also the those BNP candidates seem like they are better suited to crimewatch mugshots

[TTG4]

So I was genuinely surprised by the amount of euroskeptics on the ballot paper. I hope they manage to split the far-right vote, but I doubt they'll do enough to melt the UKIP snowball.