General Election Politics

Is there such a thing as a safe parliamentary seat?

From the 2009 EU Elections.

45 million eligible voters
15 million actually voted

30 million did not vote.

In the EU election the Conservatives gained the highest percentage of votes ~27% which is just over 4 million votes.

It doesn’t take a math genius to work out IF all 30 million non voters decided to vote as a group, whoever they voted for would win by the biggest landslide ever. And this would be true in safe seats as well.

So although this is not going to happen, the principle is there.

A lot of people complain about MP’s and then don’t vote because they believe it’s a waste of time! After World War 2 we had over 80% voter turnout, that’s democracy in action!

When the country became disillusioned with the Conservative party in the late 90s and voted in the Labour party there was still a relatively high voter turnout (around 70%), but recent voter apathy has pushed the turnout to an all time low (since WW2) of around 60%!

It’s very sad for British democracy, because with so few voting the winners don’t really have a mandate from the people.

I have a feeling most people who don’t vote are against those in power, if they all voted they could make a difference.