The dust has settled, and the fallout has been loud and split. Somehow, the Tories managed to defy seemingly large odds, and get enough seats to win a majority. Social media isn’t the best indicator, but is probably just as good a snapshot of what the voting public are thinking as the traditional polls are, and based on my own Facebook feed and the various re-tweets and tweets from people I follow, the Tories were almost seen as the party of the devil in the lead up to the vote.
As I joked this morning on Facebook, it is clear Tories don’t use social media! This was said in jest as of course its difficult to truly get a snapshot of society via social media - much like in real life I will choose who I am friends with and who I follow on twitter. This will mean they follow the same politic idealism as I do.
However, this isn’t entirely true. I know some of my friends are people I went to school with, a time when our political views haven’t quite been shaped. Others will be, in my case, people I have met in the running and triathlon scene, and again political opinions aren’t important. Add to that people I have worked with and family members and again, political opinions aren’t important. Personally, I have no problem with someone who has different political views - I just draw the line on the extreme left or right, which would have been very blatant when that person first entered my life.
Looking at my friends list and those I follow, its a mixed bag of political opinions and I like that. Yet I can only think of one, maybe two people who were very pro Tory in their posts in recent weeks. So does this mean, the traditional Tory simply stays quiet, or is even slightly ashamed to vote due to the big vocal left representation that may attack them from every angle?
Its very interesting and has felt almost bizarre. At best I felt that whoever gained the most votes would not win enough for a majority and it would be very close. At first I felt another coalition would be the only option. However, it was clear, the Tories had no support from other parties so would struggle to form a coalition this time around, and Ed Miliband would commit career and political suicide if he formed a coalition, especially with the SNP after making it perfectly clear he wouldn’t do so. This meant at best I thought the winning party would attempt to form a government even without the majority.
But this has not been the case at all and somehow the Tories have won with a majority. Now this is where things get interesting. They won the most seats and reached the number of seats needed to get the majority. But the share of the vote was 36.8% - hardly what you call a majority. It means just over a third of those who voted did so for the winning party. 12.1% voted UKIP who somehow got only 1 seat - not a bad thing I might add. 4.7% voted SNP who got 56 seats and understandably UKIP are probably feeling this is unfair. I can not stand their politics and firmly believe they have a far right agenda that they are pushing behind the scenes, but they should have won or lost fairly.
This is our own fault. We had the chance to change the voting system and voted to keep the standard “fast past the post” system. A proportionate representation voting system would have meant 80 plus seats for UKIP, 24 for Greens and the Tories would have won by only a few votes. http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/factcheck-parliament-proportional-representation/20893 shows this. However I must be quick to add, that page is based on the current votes, some of which would have been the tactical kind often seen in FPTP voting. Its also worth noting that FPTP is not going away - why would the new Tory government change a system that puts them at an advantage?
As people who read my last blog a week ago will know, I changed from being a Tory to a green voter this year. I can say, hand on heart, I am pleased I made that decision. I am proud to have joined the one million plus who voted for them (a 400% increase from 2010) and my conscious feels clear today. I have no regret and will be supporting the Green Party for the foreseeable future.
One thing that has irritated me today are labour voters complaining that the Tories will now privatise and destroy the NHS. This may very well be the truth, however the Tories are only doing what Labour started when they were in power. Labour are basically the Twin Tory Party but in red. They are now as right wing as the Tories and can thank Tony Blair and his legacy. New Labour pandered to the right to get votes from the Tories. For Labour to truly be an alternative they will need to have a change in ideology and become a real alternative to the Tories. Maybe a return to their socialist past? Maybe a very clear centre left agenda?
As for the Lib Dems, well they took a right kicking, and probably paid for forming a coalition government and bending over to take a shafting on issues they were very much against in the build up to the election in 2010. Which is a shame as Nick Clegg in particular is a very likable politician in a world of backstabbers and sharks. As a Green voter the time is right for them to take off where the Lib Dems were and be the liberal voice of the UK.
Whatever happens next, it will be an interesting five years and one I hope will see further rise in support for the Greens, a good strong Labour with good leadership to be a good opposition, one that will push the Tories on everything, and a UKIP that will slowly die off.
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