Bias! What a dirty word. Unless it's in your favour of course, then you could positively bathe in it. An extract from Explaining Cameron's Coalition run by Total Politics magazine this month reveals that any inherent bias in the electoral system cannot be redressed simply by changing constituency boundaries:
"Senior Tories [Hunt! It were Jeremy Hunt!] have apparently concluded that an important cause of this bias is that Labour constituencies have fewer voters than Tory ones, and that they can therefore substantially reduce the bias by having the constituency map redrawn with more equally-populated constituencies."
Read the piece here. One thing it shows is that bias in the electoral system can be calculated in a number of different ways. Once you fix a way of measuring that - say by comparing the how many seats each party would have won with the same number of votes - there are numerous reasons why there is a discrepancy between the proportion of individual votes and seats gained. These can include marginal constituencies (the swing votes), voter turnout generally being lower in traditional Labour seats and a ream of contributing factors. It's clear to me now that the experts can explain this far better than I can. I repeat, click here.
It's pretty convenient having review-writing, extract-running friends like ours over at Total Politics. They have the fastest growing readership amongst MPs of any political title and Peter Oborne told us that we have come of age as one of Britain's premier political publishers - so really, when you think about it, we're like peas in a pod. A cushy pod overlooking the Houses of Parliament.
I wish I could say that they're biased in our favour but sadly, they're not. All I can do is offer subtle hints as to my innermost desires.
Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to make the Editor of Total Politics magazine a daisy-chain crown and sprinkle rose petals from his desk to our bookshelves...
Explaining Cameron's Coalition is available now, priced £25
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