Posted on 05/07/2015 12:42:28 PM PDT by BigEdLB
By Joey Jones, Deputy Political Editor
:: Follow the election results live on skynews.com, our mobile apps and on Sky News TV from 10pm.
Voters are going to the polls across the country to decide who will form the next government.
Polling stations opened at 7am and close at 10pm in the United Kingdom's 650 constituencies.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
This morning, a political observer said that neither Labor or the Tories may win enough seats to form a government.
I’m not lazy. Just confused. Can anyone sum up the major players, how their govt formation works, effect on staying in EU.
I know there are liberals, conservatives and nationalists and muslims. or something like that lol
Call it
Labour = socialists
Conservatives = RINOs, moderate squishy conservatives
UKIP = True conservatives in the American sense
Liberal Democrats - to the left of the conservatives, maybe not as socialist as Labour.
Just my opinion here.
I forgot to add the SNP. Basically socialists with a Scottish nationalist bent.
Has the SNP stated it will form a coalition with Labour?
Con 282, Lab 268 LD 17 UKIP 2 SNP 55
They said they would “talk” to Labour. I am an American who is an Election nerd.
Pretty much agree with that.
Labour are Socialists - US Democrats
Tories - RINOS - GOPe
UKIP - More Conservative than not, but mostly a two issue party - controlling immigration and keeping Britain out of the EU
Liberal Dems - Similar to Libertarians but with a more Left of Center bent.
SNP and Labour seem like bedfellows except for the issue of Scottish independence. They would seem like a natural coalition partner.
It will be interesting if the Conservatives have to reach out to UKIP for a coalition. The big question is this - would the conservatives rather have a grand coalition with Labour or have to crawl to UKIP?
650 constituencies (or districts), somewhat like our Congressional Districts but much smaller and of irregular size in terms of population.
Multiple significant parties, not simply two. The Conservatives are like the establishment Republicans and the UK Independence Party i(or UKIP) is like the Tea Party.
With multiple parties splitting the vote, winners in many districts often have much less than 50 percent of the vote. In England, it’s the Conservatives versus the other conservatives versus the moderates (Liberal Democrats) versus Labour (left-of-center). Even more complex are the “nationalist” parties in Wales and Scotland. And don’t even ask about Northern Ireland. Prior to the last election, all this complexity didn’t matter much. Every election was Conservatives versus Labour. Now, things are all jumbled up.
Once the election is held, the party with the most seats (if less than a majority) will try to find enough partners to have a majority. In their system, the equivalent of Speaker Boehner is the head of government. There is no separate President, and the monarch nowadays is more of a figure head as head of state.
What is sad is that the UKIP can get more votes than LDP and still have far fewer seats
There should be a Scottish Freedom Party lol
That’s due to the UK’s first past the post system - also inherited by Canada.
A party can win a majority in Parliament with 40% of the vote.
We may be looking tonight at another hung Parliament.
That's a lot of rope.
They’re called ridings - both the UK and Canada have a lower house styled the House Of Commons.
Historical note:
This is the first UK election held according to the Fixed Election Act, which calls for elections to be held once every five years according to a set schedule.
Before that, the election date was at the discretion of the Prime Minister.
Canada will also be holding its first scheduled federal election later this year.
risings in Canada, constituencies in UK and Ireland:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_constituencies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_constituencies_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland
electorates in Australia and New Zealand:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divisions_of_the_Australian_House_of_Representatives
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_electorates
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