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Key to Politics

In: Social Issues

Submitted By jacobdyte
Words 393
Pages 2
Politics
Voting systems are often imperfect and often do not guarantee that the majority will of particular constituents are fulfilled. For instance, under Britain’s first past the post general election voting system, MP’s will frequently be elected with a minority of constituents support. In the 2010 election and the previous 2 elections (2001,2005) no MP had achieved the support of 50% of the total electorate in their constituency. A prime example of an MP winning with a minority was in the most recent election when Alastair McDonnell of the SDLP won Belfast South with a mere 24.5% of the vote, this means over three quarters of Belfast South did not want him to represent them.
The electoral reform society were able to predict the result of 363/650 constituencies four weeks prior to the 2015 election, these are called safe seats. On the other hand some seats (81) are ‘marginal’ and an example of a ‘swing’ seat is Derby North where this year the Tories only won by 41 votes and it is these fine margins that decide our election.
MP’s frequently follow party leadership instructions over thinking for themselves, their constituents or what is in the genuine best interest of the majority of the nation. For example Teresa Pearce, MP for Erith and Thamesmead has only voted twice against Labour and on a separate occasion opposed the majority will of her constituents by voting in favour of gay marriage. Elected representatives also frequently enjoy long terms in office (e.g. MP’s for 5 years) meaning it is difficult to hold individual MP’s and political parties to account.
Representative democracy in the UK has tended to be un-representative with the structure of parliament and voting systems counting against women and minority groups. There are only 191 women MP’s (29%) and only 6.5% of our MP’s are from ethnic minorities and instead parliament continues to be

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