A circular issued last week by a fvell-known firm of
brokers embodied, as an election appendix, an excursion into the higher mathematics (higher, that is, than my mathematics). It appears that the probable relation of seats in the House to votes cast at the polls rests not on direct proportions but on the proportions of the cubes of the votes cast, I do not challenge this, though the figures quoted for the last General Election show that the direct proportion was much closer to the actual result than the cube proportion ; however, it is alleged that there were special reasons . for that. If it is in fact true that the allocation of seats is proportioned not to the percentage of difference between the votes cast, but to the cube of that percentage, then, if the latest Gallup polls are anything like accurate, the Conservatives will have a majority of well into three figures. We shall see.
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