General Election

[Paul McKeown]

There was a typo in my previous message. When I said (wrt Nigel Farage) "by convention one of the three main parties are standing", I should have said "by convention none of the three main parties are standing"

tbh, I can't imagine the electors of Buckinghamshire being terribly impressed by that blustering blowhard Farrago, either. The height of his moral development seems to be shovelling hoards of European cash into his pockets, whilst simultaneously deriding the gravy train. Hmmm, bisto,... Electors generally takes a dim view of hypocrisy.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Moving well outside the requirements of David's list, but as it happens Rachel's sister is also on the National Executive Committee, the governing body of the Labour Party.

I don't know that she played any competitive chess but worked at the London Chess Centre on and off for quite a few years (as did Rachel).

I think she (Ellie Reeves) did, but to a weaker standard than her older sister..........

ER went for some Labour nominations this time round IIRC, but without getting chosen anywhere.

[Sean Hewitt]

I'd like to compile a complete list of currently active chess players standing in the General Election. To avoid any suggestion of partiality, I'm defining "currently active" objectively as someone who is in the current ECF Grading List.

I know of the following, including the one mentioned up thread:

Jonathan Arnott - UKIP, Sheffield South-East --- http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getre ... ef=131223G
Harry Lamb - UKIP, Bolton West --- http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getre ... ef=114004J
Bill Linton – Green, Enfield North --- http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getre ... ef=114458D

The last named is my club captain.

Are there any others?

David Mowat - Conservative, Warrington (South) --- http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getre ... ef=260140A

[Kevin Thurlow]

Perhaps a bit off-topic. Victor Litvin stood in South West Surrey in a 1984 bye-election as an independent, "Pro-Holocaust Masturbation Freedom" candidate. He got 117 votes, (although which particular part of his platform got support, who knows), finishing fourth, ahead of two others, including one Helen Anscomb "Death off Roads: Freight on Rail", who offended some people by standing under that label at the bye-election following the death of David Penhaligon (who seemed a thoroughly decent chap) in a car crash.
I seem to recall VL also stood at the 1979(?) General Election against some Cabinet Minister in London, under the label, "Gay Rights for the Army, Pro Nuclear War" (and I think he was anti something as well). He didn't win.
I have no idea if the "Holocaust" were being used in the nuclear war sense, (probable in view of the other election) or in the Nazi final solution sense, or in the generic sense, and I don't think I'll ask.

I am not saying he is any better or any worse than any other candidate or any other party.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Whilst we are on the topic of past elections, I noticed a while back that the Tory candidate in the 1950 GE for Leeds South (the seat of a certain H T N Gaitskell, no less) was a certain B H Wood..........

Was it indeed the one and only??

[Neil Graham]

I'd like to compile a complete list of currently active chess players standing in the General Election. To avoid any suggestion of partiality, I'm defining "currently active" objectively as someone who is in the current ECF Grading List.

I know of the following, including the one mentioned up thread:

Jonathan Arnott - UKIP, Sheffield South-East --- http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getre ... ef=131223G
Harry Lamb - UKIP, Bolton West --- http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getre ... ef=114004J
Bill Linton – Green, Enfield North --- http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getre ... ef=114458D

The last named is my club captain.

Are there any others?

David Mowat - Conservative, Warrington (South) --- http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getre ... ef=260140A

Sally McIntosh from my own club, Ashfield, is the Lib-Dem candidate for Mid-Derbyshire.

[Paul McKeown]

Sally McIntosh from my own club, Ashfield, is the Lib-Dem candidate for Mid-Derbyshire.

Good luck to her.

If the polling after the debate last night is correct, and voting intention for the Whigs is now 36%, then we've gone past the point at which we're just thinking of them as being the junior partner in a coalition. If they get to 38% on May 6, then they might be the largest party. Nick Clegg would then be likely to be the next Prime Minister. Real watershed stuff.

Gripping - exhausting - this General Election, in a way none have been for a long, long time.

Regards,
Paul McKeown

[Alex Holowczak]

The problem is that with the current voting system, the BBC election seat calculator shows that Conservative (33%), Labour (27%), Lib Dems (31%) still gives Labour three more seats than the Conservatives, and the Lib Dems have about 140 seats fewer than the pair of them. I don't see how that's fair. Indeed, if Conservative get 33% and Labour get 27%, the Lib Dems would need the remaining 40% just to be the largest party!

[James Pratt]

When Victor Litvin stood I thought he was 'The Human Race is a Mistake and Should be Abolished' Party. He was seen on NEWS AT TEN disco dancing - possibly on a liner.

He lived nowhere near his election district which (I could be wrong) included Farnham where I was then chess columnist. Amazingly I did not vote for him, or mention him en passant.

[Paul McKeown]

The problem is that with the current voting system, the BBC election seat calculator shows that Conservative (33%), Labour (27%), Lib Dems (31%) still gives Labour three more seats than the Conservatives, and the Lib Dems have about 140 seats fewer than the pair of them. I don't see how that's fair. Indeed, if Conservative get 33% and Labour get 27%, the Lib Dems would need the remaining 40% just to be the largest party!

It depends, play around. 38% is the minimum largest party vote for the Liberals, 40% the highest. Below 38% FPTP disadvantages them, but above 38% the FPTP arithmetic starts working very strongly in favour of them. 42% might be an overall majority, 43-44% might paint every house in the country yellow, from coast to coast. All if would take would be for Cameron or Brown to bomb at the next debate, or for some shocking story to come out or for some really bad statistics. They've tried the smear job on Clegg and that one went down like a lead balloon.

But FPTP is gone now, anyway. There will almost certainly be a very deeply balanced parliament. And the Whigs will demand the Tory whip or the Labour whip in support of a bill changing the system to AV+ as the first item on the next parliaments agenda, in exchange for a formal working relationship. In fact last night, if you were up late, you might have seen Michael Portillo say - in a very positive manner indeed - that the Tories would outbid Labour on that one, if that was the price. Anyway, did you see Peter Kellner on NN a couple of nights ago, saying that the models break down anyway with the current Liberal vote; he was predicting anything from 120 to 400 seats for them, iirc.

[Alex Holowczak]

I didn't realise, or see, any of those things.

FPTP is useless now; very few people will consider local issues when voting (which is fundamental to FPTP). They'll vote for party leaders, and how they put across their policies, or they'll just vote for one party regardless of their policies because they always voted one way, their father did, his father did...

[Paul McKeown]

I didn't realise, or see, any of those things.

FPTP is useless now; very few people will consider local issues when voting (which is fundamental to FPTP). They'll vote for party leaders, and how they put across their policies, or they'll just vote for one party regardless of their policies because they always voted one way, their father did, his father did...

Up to 38% they convert their marginals and the 3 way splits, but above 38% they start winning all the seats where they are in 2nd place but a long way behind and they start coming up the middle in some of the most unlikely seats.

[Brian Valentine]

I'm surprised no one has suggested the ECF Council as a model for making a hung parliament work

[Matt Mackenzie]

Sally McIntosh from my own club, Ashfield, is the Lib-Dem candidate for Mid-Derbyshire.

Good luck to her.

If the polling after the debate last night is correct, and voting intention for the Whigs is now 36%, then we've gone past the point at which we're just thinking of them as being the junior partner in a coalition. If they get to 38% on May 6, then they might be the largest party. Nick Clegg would then be likely to be the next Prime Minister. Real watershed stuff.

Gripping - exhausting - this General Election, in a way none have been for a long, long time.

Regards,
Paul McKeown

IIRC that isn't what the polls are showing - they show the LibDems falling slightly if anything.

The figure you quote is from a "poll" of those who watched the debate only.

In other words, methodologically and psephologically worthless

[David Sedgwick]

Dare I suggest that some of these posts are going rather off topic? This is the English CHESS Forum.

There are any number of political forums where people are currently debating the sort of issues raised by Paul M, Alex H and Matt M.

I think that on here we should stick to aspects of the election which have a connection to chess.