UKIP's 2015 Single Parliamentary Seat and BREXIT
The table below shows how the out-dated and un-representative UK voting system in 2015 disenfranchised almost 4 million UKIP voters. Whether one likes UKIP or not, and I really, really don't, the fact that they only had 1 seat in parliament when the should have had 82 was a complete travesty of a representative democratic process. They were clearly the 3'rd largest political grouping in the country, more than the Lib Dems and Greens combined or (a subject of later post) all the "Non-English" parties combined who have some 76 seats when they "should" (by strict proportion) only have about 42 seats i.e almost half the the 82 seats UKIP should have had.I'm convinced now, thought I never thought of it at the time - so strong was and is my aversion to pretty much all aspects of UKIP, that this totally undemocratic lack of representation of UKIP supporters and a wider disillusionment with UK mainstream politics was one of the key factors behind the EU referendum result and then inevitably to the current BREXIT debacle.
There was in my circles (all pretty much pro-EU) a deep misunderstanding of the depth of the disenfranchisement and level of concerns about the largely pro-EU position of the main parties Tories, Labour and Lib Dems. All of whom, albeit for differing reasons, were often likely to cast anyone even raising questions about e.g EU free movement policies as simple-minded, little Islanders or just xenophobic bigots. In turn this led by a sort of unthinking, semi-conscious, rationalization to many people, including myself, to think it it was "OK" or ar least not a big deal to disenfranchise almost four million fellow UK citizens because one didn't agree with their views. It is a painful personal realisation that in doing so I was therefore by no means blameless in respect of the current BREXIT debacle.
| UK Election Results - 2015 | ||||||
| Party | % of the vote | Number of votes | Actual Seats | Proportional Seats | Seat Error | % Error |
| Tories | 36.9% | 11,334,226 | 331 | 240 | 91 | 38% |
| Labour | 30.4% | 9,347,273 | 232 | 198 | 34 | 17% |
| Libs | 7.9% | 2,415,916 | 8 | 51 | -43 | -84% |
| SNP | 4.7% | 1,354,436 | 56 | 29 | 27 | 95% |
| UKIP | 12.6% | 3,881,099 | 1 | 82 | -81 | -99% |
| Greens | 3.8% | 1,157,630 | 1 | 25 | -24 | -96% |
| DUP | 0.6% | 184,260 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 105% |
| Sinn Fein | 0.6% | 176,232 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 7% |
| SDLP | 0.3% | 99,809 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 42% |
| Plaid Cymru | 0.6% | 181,704 | 3 | 4 | -1 | -22% |
| others | 1.8% | 553,893 | 3 | 12 | -9 | -74% |
| Total Voted | 30,686,478 | 650 | 650 | Total Seats | ||
I do however still regard, now somewhat ruefully, Stewart Lee's brilliant sketch about UKIP's Paul Nuttall as one of his best..
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