Following its British debut in the London and then European elections, Votematch is now up and running for the 2010 general election. The idea is a simple one – you answer 30 questions about different policies (less in Scotland or Wales because of devolution) and the site then tells you how closely your answers match those of different parties.
It’s got quite a few nice touches which show how the team have learnt both from experiences elsewhere, particularly the phenomenally successfully version used by one in three voters in Holland, and from their past experience in Britain. For example, you can pick which issues are most important to you and they then get an extra weighting in the results. You can also pick if there are any parties which you would never vote for, and they get excluded.
The results can then be shared via Facebook, Twitter and blogs plus you are given links to further information about the parties, your constituency and who is standing in it. It all makes the site slot neatly into the network of political information and education sites that have grown up in Britain.
There is also a version of the quiz being deployed by the Telegraph which it turns on its general election coverage, which will feature extra questions and benefit from the Telegraph website’s high traffic levels.
Although there was a fair amount of controversy over some of the questions and scoring used in the London elections, what I saw of the questions at the launch yesterday was pretty good. The answers, and further explanatory text, have all been provided by the parties themselves. No one set of questions is going to perfectly match what everyone thinks should be the choices between parties, but this system so far seems to do a pretty good job.
The site is at www.VoteMatch.org.uk.
If you give it a whirl, why not share your thoughts on it in the comments below?
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13 Comments
I got UKIP first naturally, rather closely followed by being a LibDem! Whodda thunk it? 🙂
Educational. I wasn’t aware that the party wanted to reduce MPs by about 20%. How on earth does this work when you want to implement PR-STV along with it? You end up with huge areas like Cornwall or rural Wiltshire having 4 MPs.
A little surprisingly I scored highest on Lib Dems – surprising in view of my anti-EU views.
Lib Dem – 74%. Yep, that’s my party!
Greens – 65%. Never voted for them – probably never will. Some good ideas, but naive and impractical
UKIP – 55%. Ah, my anti-EU views. But cannot imagine myself ever voting for them. Just look at their line-up – white, middle-aged, middle-class, reactionary ….
BNP – 47%. This is a joke yes? You would have to poke my eyes out before I’d vote for that bunch of illiterate, innumerate, racist idiots!
Labour – 40% Conservative – 23%. Have voted for both in the past; and under certain circumstances might do so again e.g. to keep out the fascists!
If the Euros had been by STV how would I have voted? Not as above. Possibly Lib Dem, Green, Labour, Conservative, UKIP. So how do I end up with the %ages above?
Libdems 71%
Greens 61%
Labour 46%
Conservtive 37%
I’d say it works.
Erm:
“The total hours allowed in a working week should not be decided by the EU.”
UKIP are “open-minded” about this.
That can’t be right surely!?
Apparently I’m 82% Lib Dem. I’m relieved, if slightly surprised. Who knew the party was right about so much? 😀
My results are
Liberal Democrats: 81%
Green Party: 70%
Labour Party: 53%
Conservative Party: 33%
which seems about right to me
OK, so I’m a Green am I? Liberal Democrat second, then Labour, then BNP, then UKIP, with Tory last. Tara then!
On second thoughts I’d rather believe me. That makes me a Lib Dem. Sometimes I’ve been asked “Who (sic – I myself would use the correct grammar, ‘whom’) would you vote for if you couldn’t vote Lib Dem?” I’ve always replied, “There always would be a Lib Dem because I’d stand myself if no-one else would do it.”
Liberal Democrat – 75%
UKIP – 55%
Green – 51%
Conservative – 47%
Labour – 35%
Higher than I was expecting score for UKIP, but then the only party I would really consider voting for now is the LD.
Edward:
Reducing the number of MPs is a very long standing Lib Dem policy position – this is how it was expressed in the 2001 manifesto:
Cut the size and cost of central government. We will reduce the number of ministers and (as part of voting reform) cut the membership of both the House of Commons and the Upper House, while not reducing the current size of the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly. This will include replacing separate UK ministers for the devolved nations of the UK with one Secretary of State for the Nations and Regions.
Here’s a news report from 2008 with slightly more detail: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7294330.stm
It’s not explicit in Make it Happen (2008) or Fresh Start for Britain (2009) but both talk about the need for constitutional reform and I seem to recall discussion around that including reducing the number of MPs.
It’s ironic that David Cameron gets a lot of coverage for wanting to get rid of 60 MPs when we’ve been trying to get rid of 150 for a long time.
Of course the quid pro quo for Liberal Democrats is that we reduce the size of the House of Commons, elect MPs fairly by PR, but also give more power to councils (and maybe elected regional government). So while we think that we need fewer national politicians, at the same time, we think we need more and more powerful local politicians.
And how would it work for constituencies? This map gives a suggestion of how it would work. And yes, that would mean single constituencies for Wiltshire and Cornwall. Why is that a problem?
Glad some people have had their preferences vindicated. In my case, having given a Scottish postcode, I was told
that I was 88% SNP, as against 72% Lib Dem and 57% Labour – this d espite voting against Scottish independence
and not recording “Sovereignty and Devolution” as one of my principal concerns. My partner had a similar score to
mine and we are both paid up party members – in her case a Lib Dem councillor as well – and could not conceive
circumstances where we would not vote LD. I suspect this may be a case of ignorance of Scottish politics on the
part of the organisers, perhaps believing that the SNPare strong everywhere in Scotland – palpably not the case.
You might also be interested in http://www.whoshouldyouvotefor.com – we were the (Hitwise certified) most popular political site in the UK in the run up to the 2005 General Election. We have a similar approach to Votematch, but more usable (we reckon) – 1m people used us last time. Thanks.
I’ve done the test several times over the last few weeks. I’m English but currently live in Northern Ireland. I have come out 9 times out of 10 with Lib Dem as my first choice, closely followed by the Greens.
In terms of Northern Ireland, I come out with Alliance (the sister party of the Liberal Democrats), followed by the SDLP or Sinn Fein.
Interesting!
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