In 2017, during the NZ election campaign, we ran a small handful of posts as dedicated discussion space for lefties. You can see the introduction and kaupapa here.
Today’s post is to create some solid left wing (and troll-free) space to talk about the UK election. It’s also fine to talk about anything that’s relevant to the left or progressives, grab whatever is of interest to you today and bring it to the conversation.
The rules are:
– To comment you have to be left wing.
– No personal attacks at all (not even if they are hidden in comments with good political points)
– Be kind. If you can’t be kind at least don’t be mean.
– Bear in mind the part of the Policy about not using language or tone that excludes others.
The usual Policy rules around robust debate still apply to other posts. If you’re not sure if you fit the criteria for this post, there is always Open Mike.
Voting in the UK closes 11am Friday NZT and Exit Polls will be released at that time. Election results are expected around 3am Friday NZT.
The BBC has a page on how the results will be reported and explanations of how a government might be formed.
How does a party win?
By winning more seats in the House of Commons than all the other parties put together. If a party does that, it has what is known as a majority. There are 650 seats available, which means 326 seats are needed to win an overall majority.
However, an effective majority could be smaller as Sinn Fein, which won seven seats in Northern Ireland in 2017, traditionally refuses to swear allegiance to the Queen and, as a consequence, is not entitled to vote.
So in 2017, 650 minus Sinn Fein’s seven would be 643 voting MPs, and 322 would have been enough to command a majority. But obviously that figure changes depending on how many non-voting MPs there are.
BBC Breaking twitter
BBC Politic twitter
Alt media Novara Media‘s livestream on youtube
Al Jazeera twitter
Let me know if you are following media with particularly good analysis or takes and I’ll add to the list.
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