# What do Americans think of the UK Tory elections? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 8, 2005, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-americans-think-of-the-uk-tory-elections/325295 "2005-10-08T08:41:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SuaSponte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SuaSponte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuaSponte)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2005, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-americans-think-of-the-uk-tory-elections/325295/41 "2005-10-11T19:11:01Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > šŸ˜• Arenā€™t all House of Commons constituencies of equal population? Nope. Letā€™s see if I can find a citeā€¦ Well, not the best one, but [here.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/a-z_of_parliament/c-d/82014.stm) The biggest issue is that Scotland and Wales are overrepresented in Parliament. Both also tend to heavily vote Labor. Hereā€™s a [link](http://www.aceproject.org/main/english/bd/bdy_gb.htm) that is a bit more explanatory. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have guaranteed minimums for representation in Parliament. They are now overrepresented. As for England, the rule is that, while equal-sized constituencies are best, ā€œParliament, however, determined that the ā€˜organicā€™ requirement to represent communities should take primacy over the mathematical requirement of equal constituency population. They removed the 25 percent deviation rule and replaced it with a rule that constituencies should ā€˜be as near the electoral quota as is practicable.ā€™ā€, but representation of a particular community (town, county, etc.) trumps equal representation of voters. Sua ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2005, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-americans-think-of-the-uk-tory-elections/325295/42 "2005-10-11T20:55:25Z")
> [@](#): > > What do Americans think of the UK Tory elections? Not only, as others have pointed out, do few Americans care about British elections, but I have the impression that few Brits care about them either. I was working in the UK earlier this year during the election, and I was astonished at how little attention they seemed to get. Nobody was talking about what was going on, the media seemed indifferent. The biggest news around election day was the 60th anniversary of the end of the war. Coming from having witnessed the US election the previous year, where everyone and his mother had an opinion and wanted to express it, the difference was shocking. And they call Americans sheep! ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-americans-think-of-the-uk-tory-elections/325295/43 "2005-10-12T05:40:53Z")
> [@SuaSponte](#): > > Nope. Letā€™s see if I can find a citeā€¦ > > Well, not the best one, but [here.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/a-z_of_parliament/c-d/82014.stm) The biggest issue is that Scotland and Wales are overrepresented in Parliament. Both also tend to heavily vote Labor. That cite and site are out of date. Scottish representation has recently been reduced from some 72 to some 59 seats- this was the main imbalance. > **[Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Parliamentary_constituencies_in_the_United_Kingdom)** > > Elizabeth II > > Charles, Prince of Wales The major problem now is that the Tories have too many wasted voters in England- rural constituencies with high majorities and that there are fewer marginals. In fact the Tory vote in England was higher than the Labour vote in 2005 but Labour still gained more seats because of its better distribution of voters. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-americans-think-of-the-uk-tory-elections/325295/44 "2005-10-12T06:41:11Z")
> [@Fridgemagnet](#): > > I hope they choose David Davies. Heā€™s a nasty bigoted little slimeball, and will do a fine job of flushing the last remaining turds of the Conservative Party right round the S-bend. Not the bloke who used to be on Sport on Two (dada-da dada-da dada-da dada-da da, DA DA, dada-da etc), then did TV after Icke was beamed up, then went off to do an Alastair Campbell for the FA? ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-americans-think-of-the-uk-tory-elections/325295/45 "2005-10-12T06:43:14Z")
> [@Pjen](#): > > In fact the Tory vote in England was higher than the Labour vote in 2005 but Labour still gained more seats because of its better distribution of voters. Sheesh! And I always thought that equality was the bedrock of Socialismā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-americans-think-of-the-uk-tory-elections/325295/46 "2005-10-12T06:56:25Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#): > > Sheesh! And I always thought that equality was the bedrock of Socialismā€¦ A relevant comment only if the current constituency system is a result of conscious gerrymandering by Labour governments. Is it? ---
**Author:** ![SuaSponte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SuaSponte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuaSponte)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-americans-think-of-the-uk-tory-elections/325295/47 "2005-10-12T13:29:07Z")
> [@Pjen](#): > > That cite and site are out of date. Scottish representation has recently been reduced from some 72 to some 59 seats- this was the main imbalance. Oops. :o > [@](#): > > The major problem now is that the Tories have too many wasted voters in England- rural constituencies with high majorities and that there are fewer marginals. In fact the Tory vote in England was higher than the Labour vote in 2005 but Labour still gained more seats because of its better distribution of voters. Is the comparative populations of constituencies still a problem? On reading my (outdated) cite from my last post, it seems that the UK puts a great deal less emphasis on equality of population in voting districts than the US does. Sua [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-americans-think-of-the-uk-tory-elections/325295.md?page=2)