The Other Minister (was Re: Is Umbridge a commentary on British govt. ed

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "or.phan_ann" <orphan_ann at ...> wrote:

Ann:
> Well, I had a vague idea that the 1992 election had been close, and
> looking it up on Wikipedia I saw that the Tories only won by 1,241
> votes - but you're right, scrolling a bit further down I see they had
> a majority of 65. This country could really do with a bit of democracy.

Geoff:
It the built-in bias of "first past the post". I can't recall when there was last 
a UK Government which actually got more than 50% of the popular vote.

There is some movement in the devolved Assemblies and Parliament (that 
is: Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland fotr non-Brits) where PR is being 
used more.

It's not only the UK: it has happened in the US. Was it the 2000 Presidential 
election where Gore got more popular votes but Bush gained more Electoral 
College votes after the Florida shenanigans? ...or was it 2004? I'm sure a 
friend from across the pond will put me right.