If ever there was any doubt that the British electoral system is broken, a new set of figures from the BBC in its article Election 2010: Gordon Brown to claim race ‘wide open’ proves the point. Because the electoral system is a first-past-the-post ‘all or nothing’ affair, smaller parties often have no representation at all in the House of Commons, but larger parties get far more seats than the popular vote suggests they should.

With Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg faring well in the first Prime ministerial debate, his party has shot up in snap polls, overtaking Labour. It’s pretty unlikely that this will be the case come election day, but the YouGov poll from the aforementioned BBC article makes for fascinating reading when the percentages are applied to seats in the House of Commons:

1. Convervatives: 33% vote share, 245 seats (38%)

2. Liberal Democrats: 30% vote share, 100 seats (15%)

3. Labour: 28% vote share, 276 seats (42%)

It’s absurd that the party third in the popular vote would not only be the biggest party in the Commons, but that it could have almost three times as many seats as a party that came in second.