[Physstaff] 2015 General Election Sweepstake

[Simon Preval]

Hello everyone. My name is Dr Simon Preval. I am based in JA801.

As you will no doubt know, the 2015 UK General Election is just around 
the corner, with England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland 
participating. This election will be very difficult to call, making this 
an excellent opportunity to call a sweepstake!

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.

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.

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 7th 
May at 5:00pm.

I am based in Office 801 in the John Anderson Building. I will send you 
an acknowledgment when I have entered your guess into the spreadsheet. 
Anyone of any nationality is welcome to participate. The results will be 
announced on Friday 8th May, provided all seats have been declared.

Finally, as this is UK wide, remember there will be lesser known parties 
participating such as Sinn Fein, and the DUP.

I wish you all the best of luck!

Cheers

Simon

-- 
Dr Simon Preval
Department of Physics
University of Strathclyde
John Anderson Building
107 Rottenrow East
Glasgow
G4 0NG

email: simon.preval at strath.ac.uk

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