Robin Tilbrook, Chairman of the English Democrats, asks if the British Political Establishment operates a Cartel. Or should that be a gerrymandering Cartel?

In a recent article on his blog Robin Tilbrook, Chairman of the English Democrats, asks if the British Political Establishment operates as a cartel.  It may or may not do so, but the British system of electing members to the House of Commons has certainly produced some outcomes which would have raised eyebrows had they happened in third world African countries or South American banana republics.  Examining the results of the UK General Election in 2015 would have a visitor from Mars wondering what British parliamentary democracy was all about!

In that election the DUP received 184,260 votes and won 8 seats in Westminster, the Liberal Democrats also won 8 seats although they needed 2,415,916 votes to do so.  The SNP received 1,454,436 votes and won 56 seats while UKIP received well over twice that number of votes at 3,881,099 yet won only 1 seat. 

Our visitor from Mars might think some pretty heavy gerrymandering was needed to produce such outrageously unfair results.  Obviously some people’s votes are worth a lot more than others!

Incidentally, in the 2009 EU Parliamentary Election, which used a form of Proportional Representation, Plaid Cymru won 1 seat after receiving 126,702 votes, but the English Democrats had no seats at all after receiving more than twice as many votes - 279,801 to be precise - than the Welsh nationalists.

Be that as it may, below is a link to Robin Tilbrook’s article examining whether the British Political Establishment operates a Cartel.

http://robintilbrook.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/is-uks-political-british-establishment.html