sirbenjamin
IFP
True fame is reading your name written in graffiti, but without the words 'is a wanker' after it.
Posts: 4,979 
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Post by sirbenjamin on Jun 28, 2021 13:11:11 GMT
No we don't.
The 'post' in 'first past the post' refers to 50% of the seats plus one, signalling the overall majority required to govern. By definition it isn't possible for more than one party to get past the post.
Brian May had a high profile slot to express a political opinion and demonstrated that he didn't have a fucking clue what he was talking about. Even being generous, his idea would amount to: when a party achieves an overall majority they should be forced to govern in coalition with the party that comes second.
The whole point of a post is that it's immutable. People use FPTP to mean 'whoever gets the most votes', as if there was some sort of infinitely moveable post existing in every seat are silly. It's a post FFS.
I have literally never heard anyone use "FPTP" to mean "a system where a party has to get 50%+1 seats in order the be the government". By that definition AMS and STV are variations of FPTP, rather than alternatives to it.
Yes. Yes they are.
During the AV campaign I frequently pointed out that AV was *a kind of FPTP* and that the idea that it was some sort of polar opposite to it was wholly disingenuous. Almost as bad as the persistent misuse of the word 'ballad'.
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sirbenjamin
IFP
True fame is reading your name written in graffiti, but without the words 'is a wanker' after it.
Posts: 4,979
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Post by sirbenjamin on Jun 28, 2021 13:15:18 GMT
His falling out with the Tories was more to do with badger culling I thought. Could we have a cull of celebrities who think their political views are of any more significance than those of any other member of the public?
I'd settle for a world in which celebrities are free to be upfront about their political views - whatever they are - rather than one in which the certain 'correct' view must be broadcast loudly and regularly, but others must be kept secret.
My suspicion is that Brian May - who was apparently happy to support the Conservatives throughout the 70s and 80s when plenty of high profile Tory politicians would've been actively involved in blood sports - decided that in the age of social media, being a 'Tory Celeb' wasn't a good look and needed to find an excuse to 'reposition' himself.
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sirbenjamin
IFP
True fame is reading your name written in graffiti, but without the words 'is a wanker' after it.
Posts: 4,979
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Post by sirbenjamin on Jun 28, 2021 13:18:06 GMT
I thought the post in FPTP is supposed to refer to a horseracing situation where lots of horses are very close together but one manages to just reach the finishing line first.
It does. The finishing post is the fixed point of 326 (or however many) seats that the winning party needs to reach.
As explained with infographics on countless election nights by Peter Snow, sometimes with the parties represented as the runners and riders.
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J.G.Harston
Lib Dem
Leave-voting Brexit-supporting Liberal Democrat
Posts: 13,591
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Post by J.G.Harston on Jun 28, 2021 14:33:22 GMT
I have literally never heard anyone use "FPTP" to mean "a system where a party has to get 50%+1 seats in order the be the government". By that definition AMS and STV are variations of FPTP, rather than alternatives to it. Yes. Yes they are.
During the AV campaign I frequently pointed out that AV was *a kind of FPTP* and that the idea that it was some sort of polar opposite to it was wholly disingenuous. Almost as bad as the persistent misuse of the word 'ballad'.
While agreeing with your second comment, I have to point out that your earlier comment is wrong. The "post" in "first past the post" is not 50% of seats, it is never the number of seats, it's the number of votes in individual seats. The "post" is wherever the post ends up at the end of counting. The post could very well be 20% of the votes if the result is 21%, 19%, 18%, 17%, 13%, 12%. And "first and second past the post" is indeed how local elections in England work. The chap on 21% would get elected, and as would the chap on 19% for a two-member seat.
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J.G.Harston
Lib Dem
Leave-voting Brexit-supporting Liberal Democrat
Posts: 13,591
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Post by J.G.Harston on Jun 28, 2021 14:34:33 GMT
I thought the post in FPTP is supposed to refer to a horseracing situation where lots of horses are very close together but one manages to just reach the finishing line first.
It does. The finishing post is the fixed point of 326 (or however many) seats that the winning party needs to reach.
As explained with infographics on countless election nights by Peter Snow, sometimes with the parties represented as the runners and riders.
No, that's the race to form a government, not the race to get elected. |
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Post by greenchristian on Jun 28, 2021 23:47:59 GMT
In this case, his support for this cause (combined with another Brian) gave us this: Which, in my opinion, actually justifies the celebrity involvement.
I assume the mushroom refers to the magic diet of whoever put that together? No, it refers to the viral video from a few years earlier which this was based on. |
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Jul 21, 2021 14:28:22 GMT
Queen of course all declared themselves to be non-political when they went to Sun City to collect their moolah from Mr. Kerzner.
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