新西兰英语 279 British Elections

　　Britain may like to find out about more our voting system in elections. Our system gives smaller political parties a chance to be part of the government. We have MMP which is one kind of proportional representation.
If a party gets a proportion of the votes, like 10%, they are represented in Parliament by the same proportion of MPs. In this way smaller parties can be represented. Today, we have two main parties but also four smaller parties in Parliament. Two of them have a part in the government. The old system of First Past the Post (FPP) can be unfair. In 1978 and 1981 Labour got more votes but National had more seats so National was the government. Listen to November 24th 2008 and September 8th 2009 for more about MMP.
The results of the elections in Britain last week gave the Tories 36% of the vote, Labour 29% and the Liberal Democrats² 23%. Other parties got 12% of the vote. There are 649 seats in the British Parliament. Tories got 306 seats, Labour 258 seats and the Liberal Democrats only 57 seats. If they had proportional representation, the number of seats would be 234 for the Tories, 188 for Labour and 149 for the Liberal Democrats. It is easy to see why the Liberal Democrats are so disappointed.
The Tories need a minimum of 326 seats so they need the Liberal Democrat¹ seats to form a government. However, the Liberal Democrats want a promise of proportional representation in the future or at least a referendum, which is a vote by the British people.
Questions to think about
The British Tories and the Labour party do not want proportional representation. Can you guess why?
What are the difficulties with a coalition³ government (where two parties have to work together)?
What are the benefits?
Numbers to listen for
Listen to all the numbers – years, percentages and number of seats. Can you get them right?
(Oh dear! Half of 649 plus 1 should be 325.)

1 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

2 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。