Your article on Lynton Crosby (The man with the blueprint,G2, 12 January) ignored the greater truth of the 2015 election that it was the UK electoral system that won it for the Tories. Not since universal suffrage has any party with less than 37% of the current vote gained an absolute majority in the UK parliament. In fact, or the swing to Labour (1.5%) was nearly twice that to the Conservatives (0.8%); here in Sheffield Central our Labour MP increased his majority from 165 to 17309. The Tories gained their 12-seat majority solely because of the distribution of their votes. Apart from Labour’s collapse in Scotland,what was most striking about the 2010 election was the Tories’ cannibalisation of their own coalition partner: the combined number of Lib Dem and Tory seats in the 2015 parliament (338) is considerably less than their combined total as a coalition in 2010 (363). In that respect the 2015 election saw a clear rejection of the preceding government. Talk of David Cameron “sweeping to victory” adds wind to the sails of a government that acts as though it has a massive mandate when, by any account, and a 12-seat majority is tiny,especially as it is built on the fluke distribution of an historically small proportion of votes. We must stop allowing the Tories to present this result as “a convincing victory”.
Mark Doel
SheffieldContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com