......and nothing had changed. Wouldn't it be a better idea to pull names out of a hat?
But the bickering has already started. Who has the MANDATE. Who has the MORAL right to form a government. Its hilarious to see these politicians talk about 'moral rights' when ignoring morality is a core part of their job description.
So lets look at this curious thing, the Mandate (I thought it was something that you organised online or got from the personals in your local paper). The Conservatives are claiming that they have the Mandate because they got more votes than Labour and they are the largest party. However, the stats show that, right now, the turnout has been around 65% which means that the Conservatives are the largest party with around 1/3rd of the votes from 2/3rds of the electorate. Which means that their Mandate comes from only 25% (at most) of the electorate. Not a resounding vote of support for them and, more importantly, not a resounding vote of confidence in our electoral process.
Its pretty obvious from this election, and those that have gone before, that the electorate are not really convinced about our electoral process. Many people that I speak to say that they only vote because they feel that, having done so, it gives them the right to complain. Many people also vote along sectarian lines because they feel that one candidate represents their social class or self interest better than another.
When you start to think about it, where is Britain in all of this. Where is the whole country and where are all the people. The answer is that the whole of the country and the whole of the people are not considered by any of the political parties. Our politics is all about us vs them. Its comforting to know that some things don't change.
Till next time, I'm Niall Connolly
PS Have a look at the Guardian's view of the factors that have influenced the voters. Find it here.
The BBC also sums up the current election stats very well here.
