Government and Politics

What are the main purposes of elections?
  * We are electing Members of Parliament to represent the constituency as a whole and us as individuals if we feel we have a grievance against the state.
  * We are delivering a verdict on the performance of the government in power. If we are satisfied, we will vote for it party’s candidate, or we may not vote for them at all. This occurred in 1997, when the electorate decided it wished to express dissatisfaction with past Conservative administration and in May 2010 when the electorate delivered a demining verdict on the outgoing Labour government.
How does the electoral system, work in UK general elections?
An electoral system that converts votes in an election into seats. It may also refer to the process of electing a single leader, such as a president or mayor. The main British electoral system is properly titled 'simple majorities in a single member constituencies' but this is commonly known as First Past the Post. The main features of first past the post are that each constituency’s returns on Member of Parliament and each party may nominate only one candidate in each constituency. Voters have only one vote each. They choose their preferred candidate by means of putting the proverbial cross on the ballot paper. Whichever candidate wins the largest number of votes is declared elected. This is known as gaining a simple majority or plurality. It is not necessary for a candidate to achieve more than 50 percent of the votes. An example of first past the post is in the 2015 election where UKIP 3,881,129 votes but only won one seat whereas SNP got 1,454,436 votes and won 56 seats, this pattern is repeated time and time again under FPTP.
Using examples, explain the effects of first past the post in the UK.
The main effects of first past the post is that there is strong, unique relationship between a single MP and every constituency. The majority of MPs are elected without securing an overall majority of the votes in...