With the Lib Dems leap froging Labour in the national share of the vote, 28 per cent to Labour’s 23 per cent, the next General Election is looking like a two-horse race between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
In Torbay it has always been the case that votes for anyone other the Liberal Democrats hand victory to the Conservative Party Candidate. Under first past the post when the vote is split the largest minority sweeps the board. Just look at what happened in Devon yesterday. The Conservatives polled under 42 per cent of the vote yet won 66 per cent of the seats and complete control of the county.
Meanwhile Labour in Devon polled 6.1 per cent of the vote and held 4 seats. The Greens polled 6.8 per cent of the vote, but only won 1 seat. The UKIP polled 9 per cent of the vote and won nothing! It simply isn’t democracy.
Electoral reform is the answer but David Cameron has made it perfectly clear he would be happy to take complete power on a minority of the votes. So long as his party can count on opponents splitting their votes between different candidates rather than the one best placed to challenge them, they will be a shoe-in at the next election.
The message is clear, if you don’t want a minority Tory Government enjoying unfettered majority power in Westminster, vote Liberal Democrat and help change the voting system so that in future every vote can count.
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