Cameron experienced his first defeat over the EU Budget last week, with more than 50 Tory MPs rebelling. There was majority of 13, in favour of a rebel Tory call led by Mark Reckless for a real terms cut in the European Union's budget. This proves that some backbenchers are brave enough to take action and not be unquestionably loyal to the government. The number of U-turns that the current government has done indicates that the threat of a backbench rebellion is sometimes enough to persuade them to drop a policy. In 2010 backbenchers were threatening to rebel over tuition fees.
It also means that generally we are governed by one party, which increases stability; for example, since 1900 there have only been three coalition governments in power. This also means we are represented by one set of policies rather than two different sets. However, the first-past-the-post system can be seen to distort the results, as the government in power will almost never have the majority of votes. For example, in the 2005 election Labour had 35.2% of the votes and they still won, because they had more seats than the other parties. Furthermore, the actual turnout was only 61.4%, so they were only representing around a third of the population.
However in the 1951 elections Labour had polled 231,067 more votes from the general public than the Conservative party, however the Conservative party gained 26 more seats and squeezed into power. This was because the Liberals only put up 109 candidates, which in turn allowed ex-liberal voters to instead vote Conservative. CHARLIE One of the main reasons why the Conservative party lost was because of their past record. Certain events in their
The vast majority of men and all women were without the vote. Voting was seen as the right of a small number of well-to-do people. The upper class dominated politics. One out of every seven adult males had the right to vote. By 1860 there were only 1.4 million voters out of a population of 30million.
The creation of the Independent Labour Party ended this and gave the working class their own political voice. When the ILP stood at their first general election in 1895 they made little impact – as would be expected from a novice party. However, by the 1900 election and the elections held in 1906 and twice in 1910, the Labour Party was starting make an impact in terms of MP’s elected and votes gained. In 1900, the Labour Party got 62,698 votes. By 1910 this had grown to 505,675 – an eight-fold increase in just ten years.
After the fight against Tommy Burns that gave him his title as the heavyweight champion, he became a hero to the blacks suffering under slavery. The Press stated that no satisfaction has ever been dealt to the slaves like that in over 50 years and it may have been a moment where it all starts to fall apart for the US society. Johnson fought and beat the next 5 contenders following Burns. As the white people in America feel humiliated by the extremely athletic and defeating blacks, Johnson’s success threatened all of America’s society. The Johnson v. Jeffries fight announced the battle of the century.
Is the explanation for 1996 that it was a ‘forgone conclusion’ sufficient to explain why half of all registered voters did not vote? Did any social group vote less than their registered voting number would indicate? The 2000 election could not have been considered a foregone conclusion, and yet just about 50% of registered voters took part in that election. Are those groups traditionally associated with either party still safe bets after the showing of both parties during the Lewinsky scandal of 1996 when both parties have displayed serious errors of judgement and where a neutral observer might identify that partisan party politics seems to be a priority above what is best for the country as a whole? The Democrats appeared to have won over those middle/upper class people who did very well out of the economic boom seen
He claimed it was time for the electorate to decide who runs the country, the democratically elected government or the trade unions? Unfortunately for Heath, Labour won the most seats with 301. This was not enough to give them an overall majority and so for the first time since 1929 there was a hung
• The makeup of the electorate: What types of people were allowed and not allowed to vote? • Campaign practices: How did candidates organize their campaigns and make themselves known to the people? • Background of candidates: How were Adams’s and Jackson’s backgrounds different, and how did they compare to those of earlier presidents? • Voter turnout: About how many people voted in the 1828 election compared to earlier elections? |Your Score |___ of 50 | There has been a majority of differences since the elections of the 1800’s.
In the statue of the constituency of Representatives, non-citizens and illegal aliens are granted electoral representation (Martin). In 2008, we are already seeing the effects of Hispanic voters. At the Pew Research Center, a study was conducted that proved 66 percent of Hispanics favor Senator Barack Obama and only 23 percent favor Senator John McCain (Lumetta). The Hispanic population is set to double to 30 percent by 2042 and given that the majority of that population votes Democratic, they will become the deciding factor in future elections that will most likely to favor Democrats. But backtrack four years ago during the 2004 election when President George W. Bush received only 35 more electoral votes than Senator John Kerry, at 286.