Did You Know: British Elections?

 by Nathaniel G

Last week, the national charity Save the Children held an election for children to vote. 23,000 children across Britain cast their ballot in the ‘Our Generation. Our Vote.’ election. Liberal Democrats came third with 13% of the vote, followed by Reform UK (10%) and Conservatives (9%). The Green Party was second with 29%. Labour won with 32% of the vote.  

Across every part of the country, the majority of voters said that education was the most important policy area.  

The youngest ever MP was Christopher Monck, elected to parliament for Devon in 1667 when he was only 13.  

In 1979, the novelist Auberon Waugh stood against Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe.  Waugh was part of the Dog Lovers’ Party.  

There have been other fantastic political parties. For example: Church of the Militant Elvis Party, Teddy Bear Alliance, Monster Raving Loony Party and Citizens for Undead Rights and Equality Party.  

Catmando (1995–2002) was a cat who was named ‘joint leader’ of Britain's Official Monster Raving Loony Party. He died in 2002, serving as leader until his death.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, people used to throw dead cats at speakers in political rallies.  

Old Sarum, in Wiltshire, is one of the most famous examples of a ‘rotten borough’.  It was an abandoned medieval village, but still had 11 people registered as living there.  In reality, there were only sheep.  However, the village still had 2 MPs in parliament from 1708 to 1832.  

If you sign your ballot and your name is identifiable, the vote does not count.

 #dogsatpollingstations is a popular hashtag during elections in the UK. It shows pictures of dogs that went with their owners to polling stations to vote.

Mr Fishfinger, dressed of course as a frozen fishfinger, tried very hard to beat Tim Farron the leader of the Liberal Democrats in 2017.  He got 309 votes (Mr Fishfinger, not Mr Farron).