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Comment by rapidaneurism | Hacker News Reader

And yet the northern muppets went and voted a Torrie government back in 2019 that took the UK out of the EU, causing a significant damage to the economy in the form of lost GDP.

Something about bicycle front wheels and sticks, under the sound of tiny violins.

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I think that is a bit unfair. Plenty of people living in cities in the north voted for Labour rather than the Conservatives. In 2019 constintuencies in Bradford and Leeds which were mentioned in the article voted Labour.

The same problem exists in the USA where in a red state a county representing a large city votes Democrat but the rural areas or surburban enclaves vote Republican. Take Texas in 2020, Austin, Houston and San Antonio voted for blue rather than red.

In the most recent general election the Labour Party had a landslide victory with only 1/3 of the popular vote. The first past the post system allots significantly more power than the vote actually mandates.

People like to joke that democracy is a tyranny of the majority, but the FPP system is more like a tyranny of the largest minority.

Note that Bradford and Leeds are not in the north of the UK. English people will refer to the north of England as “the north” even when talking in the context of the UK.

I mean they are considered to be in Northern England, unless you don't consider Yorkshire and the Humber area not to be northern. The area borders North West England and is more northern at its southern most point than North West England's southern most point.

The article is about the UK and so is the comment chain. These places might be in the north of England, but at no point was the context switched to England, except implicitly by the commenter which is why I added the note.

English people will implicitly change the context, and other English people will follow but this can be confusing for other readers since they might assume the north of the UK (Scotland) when they are really talking about the middle of the UK (north of England).

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