So it's election day in the UK. I'd almost missed that fact, but for a flurry of posts on lists with sites for choosing who to vote for. I would personally be voting Liberal Democrat if we were at home. Their policies make so much sense to me, far more so than the main two parties. The BBC site has a summary page which is useful in showing in a nutshell what each party is standing for.
However we didn't register for postal votes - I'm not even sure if we're still eligible to do so, having lived in Cyprus for over seven years now. And I doubt if our votes would have made much difference anyway. The polls are currently showing that Tony Blair should get back again, with Labour on around 37%, Conservatives about 33%, and Liberal Democrats about 24%. All rather close, really, so it could be an exciting night. However I doubt if I'll stay awake to listen to much of the counting on the radio.
3 comments:
I'm not that familiar wwith the British election system. If the Labour Party wins is Tony Blair remain Prime minister or does the party have to re-elect him?
Yes, Tony Blair remained as Prime Minister. Parties decide who their leaders are to be before the General Election, although those who are not elected sometimes resign afterwards.
If the Labour Party had only gained 36% of the seats (as they only had around 36% of the votes) they would have had to form a coalition with another party to form a government. But as it was, they did manage to get just over 50% of the seats, so they're in for a third term with Tony Blair as leader.
It's amazing that with such a low percentage of the votes they still managed to capture the majority.
I'm no student of government, but I can't help but thinking that the muli-party system that Britian has is much more productive. Our bi-partisian system is much to devisive.
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