The UK election explained

Prime Minister Theresa May has brought forward the UK's next general election. The FT's Henry Mance explains why and how the country votes for its government

Credits: Graphics by Russell Birkett. Produced by Seb Morton-Clark.

[octavianblackthorn]

this 3 minute video can teach me about my country's politics but school can't be bothered to?

[Realroyrogers]

Bring back the The Official Monster Raving Loony Party

[IrisMG]

And I thought Congress was complicated. Thank you for explaining!

[Ninja-iqxt]

I love such animated Videos. It really makes you understand clearly...keep bringing such videos in the future!

[danielowen]

How did that Tory landslide go Theresa? Looool

[MrAns]

I'm going to vote Labour as I'm a working class guy and agree with there policy's to a point. Also my old man use to vote Labour, so it's kind of a tradition in my family. The only time I voted for Conservatives was once previously and that was because Labour messed up big time under the so called leadership of Tony Blair who lied to the British public about the Iraq war and the immigration issue to. I believe he is responsible for the current sad state of affairs in the world and especially the UK. Only recently he won £697 k as prize money for the noble prize peace award, which is unbelievable. In my opinion he is a war criminal and should be locked away for killing millions of innocent women and children. He is the biggest tyrant going, he is making more money now then being prime minister, as he is funded by the Zionists who want to take control of the world. Also he is the ambassador to Israel which proves my point, he is one evil guy and has got away with everything from deception/lies to mass murder. However I have met Mr.Corby and I have full faith in him and the party this time around, he seems like a nice chap, only time will tell whoever wins. Good luck with voting.

[jordanjonwillett]

1st past the post - this Is a system that needs reform. Does not matter how fast they get the votes, matter about the quantity, otherwise we end up with MP's that don't represent the vast majority of voters.

[tauwheed]

My parents never brainwashed me to HATE CONS and LOVE LABOUR. It is me who has been seeing many drastic changes throughout my life and when compare, it gives me satisfaction to live under Labour Umbrella than to live under technical oppressions of blood-sucking Conservatives. In the past I voted Cons, but learnt my lessons, as none of the pledges they could fulfill, in contrary, they did exactly opposite what they promised to do.

[helena]

Guys. In Maidenhead, a constituency, a guy dressed as elmo got 3 votes. Elmo got some love bois

[codyshi]

Are each region’s number of representatives in the House of Common base on the size of each region or every region just gets an equal number of representatives in the House of Common?

[worldview]

So just how powerful are the British citizen votes?

[supermankelly]

"an independent Scotland joining the EU"... how stupid getting independence from the UK just to join the EU. "Yay we have less say than before! "

[Yazzaroo]

Well that's a different outlook today after the results have been released 😜

[worldview]

So in the final analysis the "House of Lords" rules & the people comply 😎

[autinthoma]

This is confusing af after the 650 constituents is it like americas house of reps and their reps seat for states then they get smaller in number on vote choice in rounds?

[leee]

So all that matters in this video is the first half minute. Each of the 650 constituencies elect an MP. Having half or more of Parliament guarantees a PM win. Now, because each MP needs only half (plus one) votes to win their constituency, a PM technically needs 25% of the total vote to win.

[GraziellaCiaffarafa]

My Italian pupils who are learning English found this great

[BrianFraser]

So let's sum up the Election in a nutshell.

So the Conservatives won...but lost ...Labour lost ....but won....the SNP won and lost in Scotland but still won and the conservatives won in Scotland but lost.. .
The government was Tory but now can't be even tho it is still and they need to make some Irish chaps Tory so they can be in charge even tho they were and still are...
UKIP lost but because of Brexit they already won ...The independents won but didn't win because they don't have a party, so they lost but are now MP's so they won ...
The winner ( May ) is being told to resign because she didn't win and she won't because she won even tho she lost...
Easy :D

[willmonham]

Current uk prime ministers are about as able to hold down the job as Chelsea's managers are.

[kinngrimm]

Who was it, calling for public vote on brexit? She didn't learn from that it seems. In a few months i will perhaps ask: "Who was it, initiating that election where labour nearly one last time?