Month: August 2016

VOTES CAST IN U.K. ELECTIONS SINCE 1945

by paleoutlaw, posted in Uncategorized

VOTES CAST IN U.K. ELECTIONS SINCE 1945

 

See accompanying post for the table and apologies for the formatting  for 2010 and 2015.

Some fascinating material here. Something to pore over for hours, if not weeks with “what if?” musings. A more complete picture would  detail seats won and include also European election results.

Just a few points to whet the appetite:

  1. One central underlying fact to keep in mind is the growth in population, from fifty million in 1951 to sixty three million odd in 2011.

 

  1. This makes the second highest ever vote, 13,948, 605, secured by Labour in 1951, even more remarkable . It was an election in which, thanks to the quirks in the first-past-the-post system, they actually lost.

 

  1. The highest ever vote, 14,093,007, was for the Tories under John Major in 1992.

 

  1. No party since 1945 has polled more than 50%. The closest was in 1955, when the Tories, under Eden, actually received 49.7% of the votes cast. (Labour, in 1945, got 47.7%).

 

  1. The first-past-the-post system has severely inhibited the chances of a of a third party – any third party – from challenging the dominance of the Tories and Labour, even when the Liberals and later the LibDems, won twenty percent or more of the votes. The most dramatic example of the quirks were in last year’s election, where UKIP, with almost four million votes, won one seat, while the Scottish Nationalists (admittedly a special case) won 56 seats with less than one and a half million votes while the LibDems, with a million more votes got only 8 seats.

 

  1. Support for Thatcher was remarkably consistent across three elections, with 1983 actually the lowest, challenging the Falklands factor theory. Would she have won had Labour not been led by Michael Foot?

 

  1. Elections in the New Millennium have shown a marked drop in voter turnout, from above 70% to the mid-60s. Voter apathy, or disillusionment ? The BREXIT turnout was 72%.

S.F. 19/8/16

 

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BRITISH GENERAL ELECTIONS SINCE 1945

by paleoutlaw, posted in Uncategorized

BRITISH GENERAL ELECTIONS SINCE THE WAR

 

YEAR      LABOUR                               TORIES                   OTHERS                   POLL

1945       11,967,746                           8,716,211                  2,864,590                72.8%

1950       13,226,176                           12,494,404                 2,621,487              83.9%

1951       13,948,605                           13,717,538                      730,546              82.6%

1955       12,405,254                           13,310,891                       722,402             76.8%

1959       12,216,172                           13,750,875                     1,640,760            78.7%

1964       12,205,808                           12,002,642                   3,099,283            77.1%

1966       13,096,951                           11,418,433                      2,327,533             75.8%

1970       12,208,758                           13,145,123                      2,117,035             72.0%

1974       11,457,079                           11,872,180                      6,059,519             78.8%

1974       11,457,079                           10,462,565                      5,346,704             72.8%

1979       11,532,218                           13,697,923                       4,314,804             76.0%

1983       8,456,934                             13,012,316                       7,780,949             72.7%

1987       10,029,270                           13,760,935                      7,341,651             75.3%

1992       11,560,484                           14,093,007                       5,999,384             77.7%

1997       13,518,167                           9,600,943                           5,242,947             71.3%

2001       10,724,953                           8,367,615                           4,814,321             59.4%

2005       9,552,436                             8,784,915                           5,985,454             61.4%

2010       8,606,517                             10,703,654                        6,836,248             65.1%

919,471

2015       9,347,324                             11,334,576                           2,415,862             66.4%

3,881,129                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         1,454,436

AN EPIC CONTEST – THE 2016 BRITISH OPEN AT TROON

by paleoutlaw, posted in sport

AN EPIC CONTEST – THE 2016 BRITISH OPEN AT TROON

The 2016 British Open Golf Championship at Troon in Ayrshire, which finished on July 20, will be remembered for all the right reasons and in particular for the epic final round contest between five times Major winner Phil Mickelson and the Swede Henrik Stenson, at 40, bidding to win a first major.

Mickelson, aged 46, opened with a superb 63, 8 under, just missing a birdie on the final hole which would have given him the lowest opening score in a major championship. At the conclusion of Day One he led by three from Kaymer and Reed. In the Second Round he again broke par with a 69, to continue to lead. Ominously, however, his lead had been cut to one, with the Swede Stenson the major mover, shooting a 65 to finish 9 under. The fancied players, including McIlroy, Johnson and Garcia were well back.

Day Three saw a further stretching out of the field, with Stenson and Mickelson pulling clear. Stenson had another excellent round of 68 to move into the lead at 12 under; Mickelson was again under par with a 70, but dropped one stroke behind. Third place (Bill Haas) was five strokes back.

The final day saw what has been termed a “shootout” between the two leaders, instantly acclaimed as a classic and as one of the greatest final round duels in Majors history. Certainly it’s the best I can remember, not just because it was a tense and exciting battle with the lead changing hands and the pair tied for several holes on several occasions, but also for the quality of the golf. By the ninth hole both players had improved on their overnight totals by four , Stenson to sixteen under, Mickelson to fifteen, the field now trailing by eight strokes.

The last nine holes saw Stenson drop a shot on the eleventh and the two golfers again tied until the fourteenth. Then in a remarkable burst, Stenson pulled ahead decisively, with three successive birdies and a par on the seventeenth to lead by two strokes. He proceeded to seal a remarkable victory by birdieing the last hole, finishing three ahead of Mickelson with a staggering total of 264 strokes -twenty under par, an Open Championship record and tying the lowest total in a major. Stenson’s final round of sixty three to win a major equalled Johnny Miller’s 1973 record at Oakmont.

Third place went to J.B. Holmes, eleven shots behind Mickelson. Also rans included McIlroy and Garcia, joint fourth at four under, and Dustin Johnson, ninth at two under. World number one Jason Day finished one over, twenty one shots behind Stenson.

22/7/16

THE 2016 U.S.PGA JULY 28-31 2016.
The last Major of the year, the U.S. PGA followed hard on the British Open, the date brought forward because of the Rio Olympic Games. The venue was Baltusrol, New Jersey, on the famous lower course designed by A.W. Tillinghast.

The course for 2016 had the added interesting factor of having only two Par-Fives – the last two holes to be played, prolonging interest by making possible a last minute surge to win or tie. This very nearly proved the case with Jason Day, the defending champion, eagling the final hole, requiring the wire to wire leader and eventual winner, Jimmy Walker, to put par or better for victory. Thunderstorms on the third day severely curtailed play and required all the leading players to complete two rounds on the last day. Whether that influenced the outcome is difficult to assess. The course took a lot of water (it rained throughout most of Day Four) which slowed the pace on the greens significantly.

The leader from the outset was the eventual winner Jimmy Walker, aged 37, who recorded his first Major victory. There were several surges during the competition but though he was caught and had to share the lead he was never passed out and completed his final round with no bogeys and three birdies. Jason Day finished one shot back, the field a further three. The “near miss” story was possibly that of the Japanese golfer Hideki Matsuyama, who finished joint fourth at nine under but who clearly narrowly missed a number of puts. Aged 24 he appears a bright prospect. Among the notables failing to make the cut were US Open Champion Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy, who is in a slump at present with serious flaws in his putting. Interesting to note also is that this year all four Majors were won by first time winners.

1/8/16