← Back to context

Comment by AndrewDucker

12 days ago

It's run by a government elected with 34% of the vote. Before that, 43% of the vote. Before that 43%. Before that 37%.

None of that sounds like democracy to me.

10 comments

AndrewDucker

Reply
Symbiote  12 days ago

Not all the government is elected.

There are several ministers from the House of Lords, who aren't elected by the people.

I haven't checked for this Parliament, but for the previous one that included people who had LOST their election to be an MP, but got nominated to the Lords anyway.

dijksterhuis  12 days ago

we have a constituency based first past the post system.

we vote for a local MP to represent our constituency in the house of commons. first one past the threshold wins and represents our area in the house of commons.

each MP gets one vote. one vote in the house of commons for each constituency.

so yes. this is possible. because it’s not about total votes — it’s about representing the individual local areas and the people within those areas.

labour won a landslide of “areas”. that’s how our system works.

just because it doesn’t match what you think democracy should look like doesn’t mean it isn’t democratic. it’s just different.

plenty of criticisms exist about our system (esp house of lords). we even tried to have a referendum on first past the post about two decades ago. i voted for AV. but oh well.

  • AndrewDucker  12 days ago

    I know how the system works.

    I don't consider FPTP to be democratic, because it disenfranches large swathes of the population and means that you can rule the country with a massive majority despite only getting 34% of the vote.