this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2024
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UK Politics

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It's time to see if the polls are right.

Previously: the voting megathread

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[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 0 points 4 months ago (7 children)

Jeremy Corbyn describes his victory as "a good majority".

He did not, in fact, win a majority, although he got very close. 49.2%

[–] HumanPenguin@feddit.uk 16 points 4 months ago (6 children)

Majority just means a larger number. The word has nothing to do with above 50%.

It is just used so in parliament because all non government seats can vote against the government, so to have the largest voting block you must have more then any other group.

As that is not the case in a constituency election, 1 vote over each other party is a referred to as a majority.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 6 points 4 months ago (5 children)

No, majority means 50%. The term for the largest number is "plurality".

[–] matt1126@feddit.uk 8 points 4 months ago

According to that same Wikipedia link you shared:

sometimes called a "relative majority" in British English

Which has been simplified to just majority in the normal parlance in political coverage in the UK (see BBC, Sky News etc. in their coverage, they all use majority to mean relative majority when reporting on GE election results)

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