A nation votes, Ohio decides

Today, in the United States of America, citizens are voting to elect their next President, as well as their congressmen for various states. However, not all votes are created equal. The two campaigns are spending big money on only a few states: the so-called "swing states" that will decide the election. If you are a republican living in New York, your vote does not count. The same can be said for a democrat living in Texas. 

This is due to how the electoral college works, as explained in the video above. The US uses a winner-take-all electoral system, where all the electoral votes from a state are granted to a single candidate if he gets just over 50% of the votes. 

This can lead to situations where the race comes down to a single state. For example, in the 2000 elections, the state of Florida gave the presidency to Bush after months of controversial recounts because the result was too close to call. This created a situation where 500 votes decided the next president of the US, regardless of the fact that Al Gore had obtained 500,000 more votes than Bush, on a national scale.

On this election, all polls seem to suggest that Ohio will determine the president of the new term. No Republican candidate has ever won the presidency without carrying this state. Depending on how Ohio decides, this might create another scenario where the president-elect does not have the popular vote. Jon Stewart, a famous comedian in the US, captures the irony of it on the video below and on his converage of the election night, titled "A nation votes, Ohio decides".

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Swing State Hell
www.thedailyshow.com
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UK Parliament

Hello everyone,

As we have been reviewing the the procedures of the UK Parliament in class recently, I thought I would share some information on the topic here on the blog. 

Firstly, on this link you can find a short summary about Question Time in the House of Commons and other aspects relating to the British political system:

www.parliament.uk/about/how/business/questions/  

Here is an introductory video to the UK Houses of Parliament, from the work of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, to Parliament's history, art and architecture: 

You can find out more about Parliament by watching other clips in this series through this link: 

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=7F1AFC4FF75A3725

The second video which I have found has highlights from Friday the 30th of October 2009, when the UK Youth Parliament debated a range of issues in the House of Commons Chamber. The event marked the first time that anyone other than MPs had been permitted to use the Chamber, and the topics discussed included the right to free university education, youth crime, transport and lowering of the voting age to 16. 

The last video which I would like to share is one showing some funny moments from political debates over the years, including clips of David Cameron, Gordon Brown and a funny moment involving Nadhim Zahawi's  musical tie! 

Enjoy the reading week and see you in class!