Monday, April 19, 2010

The UK's unfair electoral system

A YouGov poll today has put the LibDems in the lead in the UK election race, 1% ahead of the Tories. But plugging these numbers into the Swingometer gives absolutely absurd results:

Party% VoteSeats% Seats
Liberal Democrats3313220.3
Conservative3223936.8
Labour2624738.0
Others & NI9324.9

That's right: the LibDems win a hundred fewer seats than the Tories, despite leading them by 1%. Meanwhile, Labour gets the most seats, despite trailing well behind in third place.

This is utterly perverse, and should be unacceptable in a real democracy. No government elected by such a system can have any legitimacy. If the election result is anything like this poll, then the only fair outcome is a temporary coalition to implement electoral reform, followed by a second election under a new, fair system.