May 2015 could be the ‘lottery election’ – where your vote is worth about as much as a lottery ticket
British politics is now truly a multi-party phenomenon. The SNP could win over 50 seats, potentially overtaking the Liberal Democrats, while UKIP and the Greens together currently have the support of over a fifth of the UK population. The era of everyone voting for the two main parties is long gone.
But what happens when this is combined with a worn-out electoral system like First Past the Post?
The answer is: chaos. May 2015 could be what the Electoral Reform Society is calling a ‘lottery election’ – where your vote is worth about as much as a lottery ticket.
The ERS asked polling expert Professor John Curtice from the University of Strathclyde to look at some of the possible post-May scenarios: he found that it could all depend on relatively small swings of the vote affecting the whole outcome of the election.
Take one example. Despite the surge of the SNP to double-digit leads over Labour, small swings in the vote and its geographical spread mean they could either end up with a handful of seats or dozens (see graph). A neck-and-neck Labour/SNP result would leave the nationalists with fewer than 20 seats to Labour’s near-40, while a ten-point SNP lead would almost completely reverse that result.
When the Greens and UKIP are thrown into the mix, the result becomes even more unpredictable. What is likely, however, is that both parties will be disappointed, with UKIP potentially failing to build on their two by-election victories even with an expected 13 per cent of the national vote. At the same time the Greens – though likely to retain Brighton Pavilion – could fail to make any gains even with the 8 per cent they are currently polling.
Yet the Lib Dem vote could to some extent determine the election, with their support hitting the Conservatives harder than Labour. To illustrate this, a Lib Dem vote of 10 per cent would mean the Conservatives need a seven-point lead for a majority. But a Lib Dem result of 15 per cent would raise that to a full ten points (see graph).
That’s what happens when you try to squeeze six or seven-party politics into a two-party voting system. All the parties are affected by the lottery election one way or another, and while some may got lucky, others are going to be sorely disappointed.
Is this any way to determine the make-up of the next House of Commons? What can we do to make it fairer?
What we need above all is an electoral system that reflects how diverse British politics has become. One positive result of the May election might be that debates around electoral reform come back on the agenda. Perhaps we could even make 2015 the last lottery election.
Read ‘The Lottery Election’ here.
Josiah Mortimer works for the Electoral Reform Society
36 Responses to “Comment: Let’s make this the last ever ‘lottery election’”
Barry Scarfe
If we adopted STV it could be a problem if Scotland remains a part of the United Kingdom because the multi-member constituencies in the Highlands would have to be huge. Yes, the ERS’s stance drives potential supporters away from it.. STV depending upon how many MPs are elected per constituency could be painted by opponents in a referendum as only being helpful to centrist parties like the Lib Dems and that would be a gift to reform opponents as it was during the AV referendum. If we are to get the British electorate to endorse real electoral reform we need to put a system on the table that can’t be seen in that way and which would appeal to supporters of BOTH left-wing and right-wing parties and I think that MMP/AMS fits that. Too often, the ERS comes across as a ‘leftie love in’.
Leon Wolfeson
So in practice, you’re thus opposing it because you refuse to admit it can happen…
robertcp
I have supported electoral reform for 30 years.
Leon Wolfeson
So when did you stop? Again, saying it’s conditional on party approval is just that.
Plenty of measures have been enacted because of public pressure, and this is one such which is becoming very hard indeed for the main parties to avoid as their vote erodes. The *problem* from my perspective is that they’ll fight to keep it semi-proportional such as AV+, or to use STV, rather than MMP.
robertcp
I have not stopped supporting electoral reform but we need to be realistic after the disaster of 2011. I would be delighted if we got AV+ or STV.