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Hello all<br>
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<br>
Finally, polling day has arrived! For the sweep stake, we have had
three entries thus far. The prize for the sweep stake is the
combined pot, so the more people that enter, the bigger the prize!
As a reminder, the rules are posted below. I will continue to take
entries until 6pm today.<br>
<br>
Cheers<br>
<br>
Simon<br>
<br>
~~~~~~~~~~~<br>
The rules are simple. All you have to do is tell me what the
distribution of party seats will be after all votes are counted,
and all constituencies are declared. The person that provides the
closest guess will be declared the winner. <br>
<br>
To determine the winner, I will take your guess, subtract it from
the actual results, and sum the number of seats remaining. For
example, suppose you guess 250 seats for Labour, 350 seats for
Conservative, and 50 for the Liberal Democrats. The result is then
declared as 260 for Labour, 340 for Conservative, and 50 for the
Liberal Democrats. The difference is then 10 for Labour, 10 for
the Conservatives, and 0 for the Liberal Democrats, meaning your
guess was off by 20 seats. The person with the smallest
difference, then, is declared the winner. In the event that more
than one person scores the same difference, the prize will be
divided equally between the winners. I will accept guesses for any
party, so don't be afraid to guess 2 seats for the UK Communist
Party if that's what you believe! Furthermore, some parties have
multiple branches, such as Scottish Labour, or the Green Party of
England and Wales. Don't worry about specifying the location of
the party, as I will take it to mean Labour or the Green Party as
a whole.<br>
<br>
The entrance fee is £1 per entry, and you are allowed to enter as
many guesses as you wish. I will happily record your guesses
either in person, or by email, however, payment MUST be received
by Thursday 7<sup>th</sup> May at 5:00pm. I am based in Office 801
in the John Anderson Building. I will send you an acknowledgement
when I have entered your guess into the spreadsheet. The winner of
the sweepstake will claim all of the money that was put into the
pot.<br>
<br>
Finally, as this is UK wide, remember there will be lesser known
parties participating such as Sinn Fein, and the DUP. <br>
<br>
I wish you all the best of luck!
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Dr Simon Preval
Department of Physics
University of Strathclyde
John Anderson Building
107 Rottenrow East
Glasgow
G4 0NG
email: <a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:simon.preval@strath.ac.uk">simon.preval@strath.ac.uk</a></pre>
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