Sentences with phrase «votes in safe seats»

That to me is the great unknown — it's a good bet UKIP are going to double or triple their national vote share but it might be very uneven, with big votes in safe seats and more modest performances in marginal seats due to a stronger campaign from the other parties.

By piling up votes in safe seats, it is harder for the party to win a majority nationally.

These sorts of distortion can be caused by several factors, including tactical voting (as perhaps in Birmingham), electoral pacts (as perhaps in North East Lincolnshire), one party piling up votes in safe seats but losing out in marginals (as in Leeds), or turnout being particularly low in one party's safe seats (as in Sefton).

Not exact matches

But his «safe hands on the economy» message cut through in the end, with the coalition winning a majority of seats in 1998 despite Labor winning 51 per cent of the two - party vote.

If you live in a safe seat, then chances are that your vote in the general election won't matter.

It would mean that suddenly all of the perennially safe seats would be in play - to the extent that everyone who lives in them would get to express a meaningful vote for their next MP - if not on election day, then in the primary running up to it.

Ealing Central and Acton has gone from a 274 vote majority to nearly 14,000 - a 25 % majority in what has overnight become a rock solid Labour safe seat.

Remember, there are no truly safe seats: no candidate in the last election got more than half of all the potential votes in their constituency.

With just over three weeks to go before a crucial byelection in the normally safe Tory seat of Rochester and Strood, which Ukip threatens to seize, the poll puts Ukip on 18 % of the national vote, with the Lib Dems on 6 % and the Greens on 4 %.

Besides the fact that AV doesn't do much to stop this (in the safest seats, MPs tend to get big percentages of the vote anyway), it's another continuation of the idea that we can get reforms passed on the back of public anger towards MPs over the expenses scandal.

The Conservatives tend to pile up large majorities in safe seats and because the planned redistribution of seats did not take place after the 2010 election, Labour has a number of seats with below average electorates, making the vote - to - seat ratio work all the more in its favour.

[48] The party also came second place by 633 votes in the Bromley and Chislehurst by - election, threatening the safe Conservative seat and pushing Labour into fourth place behind the UK Independence Party.

We are often told that in too many seats votes don't count, that those seats are «safe», but events in Redcar show that it simply isn't true.

These disproportionalities aside, the unfairness of the system can be seen in the 25.7 million people who we, at the Electoral Reform Society, estimated lived in safe seats earlier this year It can also be seen in the approximately three million people who felt they had to vote tactically, or the almost three quarters of votes which were wasted in this election — i.e. they didn't contribute to electing an MP.

And because our archaic voting system tends towards the creation of safe seats, there are a lot of places where incumbents stay in position for a long time.

BME voters are more likely to live in safe Labour seats where there may not be an active Conservative Party and statistically they are over-represented in lower socio - economic groups, so you would expect them to be more likely to vote Labour.

Obviously this site could have the opposite effect in safe seats such as Knowsley where there voting power is roughly 100x weaker than the average UK voter and hence could lead people not to vote.

KINGSTON >> In the race for the 41st state Senate seat, incumbent Sen. Terry Gipson and challenger Sue Serino, a current Dutchess County legislator, have sparred over issues ranging from the SAFE Act, school funding, and the voting records of each while in officIn the race for the 41st state Senate seat, incumbent Sen. Terry Gipson and challenger Sue Serino, a current Dutchess County legislator, have sparred over issues ranging from the SAFE Act, school funding, and the voting records of each while in officin office.

The Ningo Prampram seat has traditionally been a safe one for the NDC although the NPP believed to have closed the gap in terms of votes in the 2012 election.

The constituency system combined with first - past - the - post voting brings other problems and grievances in its train, especially the issue of «wasted votes» in safe seats.

This may fuel concerns that Labour's young vote is mostly concentrated in existing safe Labour seats.

OBV is very quick to mark the selection of a black Labour candidate in a difficult - to - win seat but nearly one week after Kwasi Kwarteng was adopted as the candidate for a safe Tory seat there is no mention on Operation Red Black Vote's site.

He became the biggest casualty of the night when his once safe majority in East Renfrewshire - a seat he had held for nearly 20 years - was eliminated as the SNP's Kirsten Oswald swept to victory with 23,564 votes to Labour's 19,295.

Reformers say too many votes are effectively wasted in safe seats where either Labour or Conservatives have large, in - built majorities, and this depresses turnout.

Those advocates of preferential voting for UK General Elections should take note of what is going on Down Under in the previously safe Tasmanian Labor seat of Denison.

For such a long time British politics has felt predictable to voters in safe seats and voting at all has felt pointless, but now we are seeing big political figures losing their seats as Scotland turns from red to yellow.

Received wisdom - also left in tatters by this election - holds that Labour's vote is piled up in its safe seats.

@SUE MARSH You mention Iran, whilst there are a tidy number of Iranians in the UK, I am not aware of any Labour safe seat which relies on the «Persian vote».

Carswell won almost 60 % of the vote in Clacton, but Ukip also came within 617 votes of capturing the formerly safe Labour seat of Heywood and Middleton in Greater Manchester on the same day, a byelection triggered by the death of Jim Dobbin.

Under the first past the post electoral system, many Labour votes were «wasted» as part of large majorities for MPs in safe seats rather than into holding onto marginal seats.

Bridget Phillipson took 21,218 votes in the safe Labour seat of Houghton and Sunderland South, with UKIP in second place with 8,280 votes.

[8] Hewitt's constituency of Leicester West is a safe Labour seat, with a majority of 9,070 votes in the 2005 General Election.

In the many safe Labour seats in the West, there is no risk in letting the Con in by default if you vote for the SNP and elsewhere the SNP are probably the incumbents or up against the LibDemIn the many safe Labour seats in the West, there is no risk in letting the Con in by default if you vote for the SNP and elsewhere the SNP are probably the incumbents or up against the LibDemin the West, there is no risk in letting the Con in by default if you vote for the SNP and elsewhere the SNP are probably the incumbents or up against the LibDemin letting the Con in by default if you vote for the SNP and elsewhere the SNP are probably the incumbents or up against the LibDemin by default if you vote for the SNP and elsewhere the SNP are probably the incumbents or up against the LibDems.

Both systems have their faults — it's obviously absurd for the Lib Dem vote to fall by 10 % in seats where they currently have less than 10 % of the vote, but it's also unlikely that it would fall by as much as 23 % their safests seats.

Labour was squeezed in its north west heartland on Friday morning when Ukip came within 617 votes of capturing the safe seat of Heywood and Middleton.

Last week's byelection in Henley was predictable and surprising in equal measure: predictable because it showed that David Cameron, riding high in the polls as the government falls from grace, can win a safe seat on his home turf; but surprising because the Conservative vote didn't go up by much compared with the 2005 general election, even though the party is a full 14 % higher in the national polls.

By creating safe seats where parties (whether incumbent in the seat or not) do not bother to campaign, the system creates voters who consequently do not bother to vote.

Britain's first - past - the - post (FPTP) electoral system (in) famously results in marginal and safe seats where many votes are considered «wasted» — but the 2017 General Election has shown just what random results that can throw up.

As it happens the Conservative - Labour swing in marginals was much the same as it was in safe seats in 2005, but the changes in the parties votes was different — both the Conservatives and Labour did better in their key marginals than elsewhere, it's just their mutual improved performances cancelled each other out!

It is worrying that discovering one is in a safe seat may put some people off voting, but ultimately it is important for people to be informed that their vote isn't being valued as it should be.

Our research shows that # 1.31 was spent per vote in ultra-marginal seats in 2010, compared to just 58p per vote in the 276 seats categorised as safe.

The seat will disappear under boundary changes, and its history really falls into two stages — a safe Labour seat until Tristram Hunt was parachuted in before the 2010 election, and the collapse of turnout and reduction of the Labour vote to a minority in the era after New Labour took control.

Surprised to see this seat described as a safe Conservative one — would it not have voted Labour in 97 and 2001?

The increase in the Plaid vote was in the traditionally Labour areas, hence why 6 safe Labour seats are now marginals.

This is a small improvement on our current system of first past the post, since it allows voters to rank candidates and reduces the need to vote tactically, but it does not address the crucial unfairness at the heart of our democracy which is that a party's share of seats in parliament does reflect the number of votes it receives across the country - a situation which leads to millions of wasted votes and a shameful system of «safe seats» where a donkey could be elected so long as they were wearing the right coloured rosette.

UKIP polled more votes than the Labour party in the Wakefield district, bearing in mind the Wakefield district have some of the safest Labour seats in the country this is a remarkable achievement by UKIP and should be a concern to Labour and Conservative.