What on Earth is going on? I regularly check out many blogs and on my travels I came across one with this Youtube clip. It was made by the Conservative Party and features their campaign planner, MP Eric Pickles, making an impassioned plea for the Lib Dems.
The sad thing is that Mr Pickles doesn't even realise he's doing it. Forward the clip to 1.00 and listen to his description of how the electoral system works in the UK. At the last election, the Tories got 35.7% of the popular vote and 194 seats. Labour got LESS - 35.5% and got 286 seats.
Mr Pickles then goes on to explain that to get a majority, the Tories need to have a double digit lead over the Labour party. I hadn't realised that the Labour party had a 60 seat majority despite polling less votes than the Conservatives. However you look at it, a fairer system of voting would have meant that we didn't have a Blair/Brown government. The Tories have long stated that the "first past the post" system is "better". Does that mean that they think that a Gordon Brown majority would have been better?
I'm not an expert on voting reform, but until I saw Mr Pickles video, I'd never realised how unfair the system actually was. The only party who believe in reform of the voting system are the Lib Dems. Has it occurred to Mr Pickles that he's just made the best advert ever for the Lib Dems? Given the troughing which Tory MP's and their duck houses have been up to, is drawing attention to the fact that the whole system is dodgy a bright move? Yesterday, I detailed how the Lib dem candidate for Hendon, Mr Matthew Harris, may like to remind his Tory and Labour rivals of how they've cocked up Thameslink, the preferred method of commuting for many Hendon residents. I'd suggest that Mr Harris may also like to show any Tories he bumps into, Mr Pickles video, and explains to them that Mr Pickles thinks that a system that gave Blair/Brown a huge majority despite getting less votes than the Tories, is the way to run the country in the year 2010.
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