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- Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!uknet!qmw-dcs!usenet
- From: mmh@cs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach)
- Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
- Subject: Re: The vagaries of electoral politics (was Re: Rule Britannia)
- Message-ID: <1992Nov17.151116.10278@dcs.qmw.ac.uk>
- Date: 17 Nov 92 15:11:16 GMT
- References: <1992Nov16.160652.1307@infodev.cam.ac.uk> <1992Nov17.095042.313@dcs.qmw.ac.uk> <1992Nov17.124209.15681@infodev.cam.ac.uk>
- Sender: usenet@dcs.qmw.ac.uk (Usenet News System)
- Organization: Computer Science Dept, QMW, University of London, UK.
- Lines: 26
- Nntp-Posting-Host: coffee.dcs.qmw.ac.uk
-
- From: gdb15@grebe.cl.cam.ac.uk (Guy Barry)
- >Obviously this is all a bit crude since people will vote differently
- >depending on what type of seat they're in (they'd be mad to switch
- >from the LibDems to Labour in Brecon and Radnor, for instance). But,
- >in terms of a general national trend, it does seem that voting Labour
- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- >would have a much greater effect in dislodging Tory MPs than voting
- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- >LibDem.
- ^^^^^^
-
- Unfortunately, that phrase can be, and has been, misinterpreted
- as meaning "voting Labour anywhere is the best thing to do to
- dislodge Tories". As I said, I have actually heard people who
- support the Liberal Democrats, and live in seats where the Lib
- Dems are a clear second to the Tories, say they are voting
- Labour because that's what they have been led to believe by
- sloppy usage of that phrase by the supposedly neutral, and by
- deliberate use by the Labour Party.
-
- The only non-ambiguous way of phrasing it is "there are moe
- places where voting Labour is more likely to dislodge a Tory MP
- than there are places where voting LibDem is more likely to
- dislodge a Tory MP".
-
- Matthew Huntbach
-