And while I'm on the subject

[sesquipedality]

Political polls during the election have indicated that the split in the vote is something like as follows. Labour: 40%, Conservatives: 25%, Liberals: 20%, Others 15%. Now as far as I can see that means that the Tories have about as much support in this country as the Liberals. Yet in all the election coverage I've seen, the Lib Dems are treated as "also-rans". The perception of the Lib Dems as a minority party is an illusory one, created by our rather bizarre electoral system by sustained in a large part by the media. Unfortunately this perception loses them votes from people who think there's "no point in voting for a party that won't win".

Comments

[jonnyargles.livejournal.com]

The trouble is, though, that their vote is concentrated as runner-up parties in many constituencies with healthy majorities. Cynics could say that this explains their relentless pursuit of proportional representation.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

I don't think that thought is restricted to cynics :)

Can you blame 'em?