Ever since the earth-shaking political atom bomb that was last weeks Leaders Debate – which SSY dissected in characteristic form – the polls have been turned upside down. Nick Clegg has almost singlehandedly taken the Libdems from third place to pushing the Tories for first. The Libdems have been scrutinised more than at any time for a generation, because they will now almost certainly have to be part of a coalition Government with either Labour or Tories if a there is going to be a stable Government for the next 4 years. And given the cuts that are coming, it had better be stable to withstand the flak.

The massive boost for the libdems is shown in the polls conducted for the Guardian. It shows the Libdems have surged 10 points ahead, are on 30%, with the Tories on 33% and Labour on 28%. The Libdems boost has come at a cost of taking votes from both of the other mainstream parties, and a smaller segment from the smaller ones. David Cameron has resorted to hiding in his back garden as part of a last ditch effort to fuck the Libdems. As rubbish as the Libdems are it’s amusing to watch Cameron and Brown panic over having to develop their arguments a bit more beyond “It’s that prick or me”. What is interesting – and quite shocking – has gone pretty much unreported though.

Labour are set to get the most seats in Parliament, despite coming last in these recent polls.

And although the Libdems are ahead of Labour and only 3 points behind the Tories they have a fraction of their support in terms of MP’s. This is because the Westminster Parliament works on a FPTP system, where most peoples votes are wasted. Also Labour’s majority in 1997 was so huge, that in order to beat them it doesn’t matter if loads of people vote Tory or Liberal in some constituencies – they have to be beaten in key marginals. That’s why the Tories have pumped loads of money from tax dodging exile Lord Ashcroft into seats they need to win to have a clear majority. It’s also why any Labour leaflet coming through your door (particularly in Glasgow) telling you to vote Labour cos it’s a two horse race between them and the Tories is bollocks. Scotland has overwhelmingly voted Labour in the past Westminster elections, and it’s been the votes in the South East that counted.

Nobody in SSY has any sympathy for either the Tories or Libdems – but it’s ridiculous that Labour can get the most seats of any of the 3 major parties with the smallest number of votes. It’s another reason the Westminster parliament is an undemocratic fraud, where political parties on a minority of votes can hold political power. Remember that the next time politicians wonder why young people don’t vote – cos the majority voted against Labour, but they still won anyway.

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