The British Labour Party is basking in a richly undeserved landslide. At time of writing yesterday evening, Labour had 413 of the 634 seats decided. There are 659 seats in the House of Commons so it the results from 634 seats can be extrapolated with some accuracy.
Labour obtained 65.2 per cent of the seats in Thursday’s election. It did so on just 42.3 per cent of the vote. And given that there was a voter turnout of less than 65 per cent, Labor got just 28 per cent of the vote at of the national electorate. Yet it was declared by Prime Minister Tony Blair as a triumph and a landslide for Labour. It is amazing what an electoral system can do to translate votes into either a landslide or a cliff-hanger. Margaret Thatcher got similar small votes and large seat counts for the Conservatives in the 1980s
Meanwhile this time, the Conservatives got just 164 seats of the 628 declared by yesterday evening Australian time. That was 26.1 per cent of the total decided, and yet the Conservatives got 32.5 per cent of the vote. In short, Labor got nearly 40 percentage points more seats that the Conservatives yet got just 10 percentage points at more vote than them. (Contrast that to the conservative Liberal party getting 10 percentage points more than Labor in Ginninderra last ACT election, yet getting the same number fo seats.
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