Searching for positives in the aftermath of Thursday’s triple byelections, the Conservative party chair, Greg Hands, pointed out that Labour had lost its deposit in Somerton and Frome. Speaking immediately after, the polling expert Sir John Curtice had a different view: this was actually bad news for the Tories.
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As noted by Curtice, the results once again show how much better UK voters are getting at making tactical decisions, although this is generally seen as easier to do in a byelection, without the wider political noise of a general election.
Annoyingly, this approach benefits the conservatives because of fptp, assuming you’re planning on voting for a left-leaning independent.
Labour and conservative may be basically the same, but that’s because they’re both effectively centrist parties. One of them sits slightly to the right of the center whilst the other sits slightly to the left.
Because of fptp, it’s always going to be one of these two parties in power without some huge upheaval for both parties at the same time, which is unlikely to happen.
Protest votes to the left are seen as a win for the Tories because that’s one less vote for labour, protest votes to the right are seen as a win for labour as it’s one less vote for the Tories.
Our voting system is just crap.
Oh yes, we should absolutely change the voting system. But I don’t believe in tactical voting.
I’m not going to vote for one of the main two parties just because they’re the main two parties. I don’t care if that’s classed as a “wasted vote”, our voting system is not my problem.
Except it is yours, and all our problem isn’t it?