[user104658]

Originally Posted by MTVN

I doubt anyone thinks the Tories had over 50% of the vote but national vote share is and always has been irrelevant in our system - this ain't the USA after all. What the Tories did do is win the individual contest in 331 out of 650 seats so it is true to say that over 50% of constituencies wanted to be represented by a Tory MP.

I think you'd probably be surprised, I talked to a lot of people, even vaguely interested people, about the process over the last couple of weeks while taking bets and trying to explain the odds, and then also explaining the result. Many people are simply baffled by a lot of it. Most didn't understand the concept of a "minority" government at all, for example, and certainly couldn't get their heads around the fact that at one point Ed Miliband was favourite to "be the next PM" while the conservatives have been 1/5 (a relative certainty) to "win the most seats" for months, and "win the most votes" has hovered around evens for both.

These aren't "thick" people, just average people who don't have any real interest in the process until the day of the election itself. It's quite worrying, when you think about it. I mean, what even is "democracy" if huge chunks of the people voting don't understand the process?