23rd General Election

The **23rd General Election** took place between the 4th and the 19th of April 2016, with the 23rd Parliamentary Term starting on the 26th.

The General Election is worthy of being noted for being the only General Election that the National Liberal Party contested, winning a single seat, before their dissolution a few months later. It is also noted for breaking a then recent trend in left-wing Governments - a two year wait and the Conservative Party won a plurality of the vote for the first time since October 2010.

## Candidates

In the General Election, there were seven parties:

* The **Labour Party** had spent the 22nd Parliamentary Term in Government but their Leader, Saracen's Fez, contemplated that a term in the Opposition for a change might be a good idea. In their manifesto, as well as highlighting how they produced the first proper Budget Report for four terms and took radical action to tackle obesity, Labour promised to reform the tax credit system, lower the voting age to 16, introduce a bracketed system of corporation tax and force academies to follow the National Curriculum. They did not have a slogan for their election campaign.

* The **Conservative Party** had not been in Government since April two years ago, in April 2014, so were hoping to prosper in this election. They pointed out that even though they were in Opposition, they had still helped to expand the number of science parks, simplify the compensation system for delayed train services, correct inequalities within divorce proceedings and resturcture the fishing industry to protect the environment. Among other things, they pledged to reform the tax system and reduce tax loopholes, expand access to private tutors, alter the pension system, protect digital privacy and offer financial audits to people who are struggling with their finances. Their slogan was 'let us govern, don't be stubborn'.

* The **Liberal Party** had served the term in a coalition Government with the Labour Party. In their manifesto, they promised to increase the minimum wage in line with inflation, cut corporation tax, crack down on tax havens and tax avoidance, decriminalise all Class B and C drugs, retain Trident, reduce universdity tuition fees to £6000 and legalise euthanasia. Their slogan was 'socially liberal, economically sensible.'

* **UKIP** had spent the majority of the term trying to unite once more following the Liberal-UKIP-Green government in the previous term. They pledged to scrap foreign aid, replace Trident, achieve energy self-sufficiency, reduce corporation tax, end stamp duty, force immigrants to pay for medical care, deport foreign criminals and turn away refugees. Their slogan was 'put the country first, elect a UKIP government.'

* The **Socialist Party** were seeking to restore their glory of parliaments gone by and perform a lot better than the 22nd General Election where they only managed to win 2 seats. In their manifesto, they promised to enact the largest council house building scheme since WWII, nationalise or mutualise the rail, energy and water sectors, expand the student grant system, strengthen trade union rights and scrap Trident. Their slogan was 'dedicated to a democratic socialist society, run in the interests of the millions, not the millionaires.'

* Like UKIP, the **Green Party** had also spent the last term recovering from the LUG government but they appeared to have suffered even more. They vowed to introduce higher tax bands, stop fracking, scrap business rates for small pubs, lower VAT on bicycles and cycle helmts and end zero-hero contracts. Their slogan was 'vote Green for a fairer and just country.'

* The **National Liberal Party** hoped that this would be the election that would kickstart their MHoC journey. In ther first manifesto, they highlighted three policies that they supported: constitutional conservatism, social justice and individual liberty. However, their manifesto was criticised for its bland look and its lack of direction. Their slogan was 'the logical alternative.'

## General Election Process

There was a minor dispute when then-Speaker RayApparently allowed UKIP to post an extended version of their manifesto in the thread, with Lime-man claiming this went against MHoC rules. However, Jacob E pointed out that the Guidance Document does not contain this particular rule.

PetrosAC challenged TeeEff to make a rap for the election, a challenge which the latter duly accepted:
*Man be sending like it's Yungs v Chip.*
*You sure that's wise? Sure that's hip?*
*Top Tory MC yeah I'm the flagship,*
*Takin' shots for round two, no kinship.*
*Greens, funny seeing 'henge for your background.*
*Like your party, it's found on the southbound.*
*Can't fill four seats. Your time is on loan.*
*Use one of the rocks as your gravestone*

Lime-man complained that it was unfair that he was not allowed to stand, vote or join a party but RayApparently reminded him that 'the debate on the issue has already concluded.' TheDefiniteArticle sympathised with him and Tanqueray91 admitted that he was split on the issue.

The lack of the Mass PM slightly reduced the turnout but nevertheless, in the first 24 hours of the election, 100 people voted. This unfortunately did not transfer however to the 24th General Election.

In the days leading up to the conclusion of the General Election, a predictions thread was set up by Aph again. PetrosAC, Rakas21, Andy98, cBay and jamestg were joint winners, with their predictions 6 seats out from the results. Also, jamestg set up a poll in the UK Politics forum to try to get a rough idea of what the General Election result would be. Interestingly, on his poll, the Conservatives beat Labour by a single vote, reflecting the final result of the General Election and his results were nearly identical to the exit poll ones.

### **Exit Poll**

On 18th April, RayApparently released the exit poll. It was as follows:

Upon revealing the exit poll, RayApparently revealed that if voting had ended a few hours earlier, there would have been significant changes. Jammy Duel was suspicious of this and suggested that someone who could see the results before Ray released them could have done some last minute canvassing for votes. Members of the Labour Party were not taking anything for granted but were relatively confident that they would remain top of the standings when ineligible votes were removed with cranbrook\_aspie saying 'I'm not going to celebrate yet' and LovepreetDhillon exclaiming 'long live the Labour Movement.' Jacob E even remarked that PetrosAC would 'accept to be Labour's poodle for another term.'

### **Results**

The next day, RayApparently revealed the official results. They were as follows:

A staggering 134 invalid votes were removed, reducing the number of total votes cast from 319 to 185. As one would expect, this large change had a significant effect of the standings. The final results were very close and just a single vote separated the top two parties. This was also the case for the gap between the Socialist Party and the Green Party. All in all, it was a very bruising election for the two Government parties (the Labour Party and the Liberal Party). In fact, the Labour Party lost proportionally more votes from correction than any other party (51.1%). The Socialist Party saw the most impressive gains, pulling them out of an electoral slump. Although UKIP lost a seat for the first time in this election, they still won their second largest number of seats. The National Liberal Party managed to obtain just one seat and this set them on a downhill journey until they were finally shut down in June 2016.

Following the release of the results, Conservative Leader Life\_peer made the following statement: 'Huzzah! First Conservative win after who knows how many elections! I'm proud to be the Conservative leader and thank my colleagues for their effort! I take this victory as a good omen for the times to come.' The Socialist Party were delighted with their success, with their Commissar for External Affairs, GaelicBolshevik, saying that he was 'ecstatic' and that his party would be 'a force to be truly reckoned with' in the upcoming Parliament. Saracen's Fez was gracious in defeat but warned the Conservatives that 'if you want to form a government, you'll need to be pragmatic to get things passed.'

The voting patterns for the General Election were as follows:

At first, there were rumours that UKIP and the Conservative Party might form a coalition but a week later, RayApparently officially announced that a Conservative-Liberal Government would form and that the Labour Party would become the Official Opposition.

## External Links

* 23rd General Election Notification Thread
* 23rd General Election Debating and Voting Thread
* 23rd General Election Predictions Thread
* 23rd General Election Results
* State Opening of the 23rd Parliamentary Term