On Tue, 09 Jun 2015 23:32:25 +0100, Nightjar "cpb"@ wrote:

I don't think any of them would argue about being a "minority" party,
tbh, although there's a fair case that the SNP aren't - not with 50% of
votes cast, 35.5% of the electorate, and 95% of seats...

I would say there are three broad categories:

A major party is one that can reasonably hope to be able to form a
government; really only Labour and the Conservatives.

A minor party is unlikely to be able to form a government by itself, but
has enough clout to be asked to form a government with another party
that does not have a clear majority. I would still class the Lib Dems as
a minor party, irrespective of their recent showing, and the SNP have
moved up to that category since the last election.

A minority party has no realistic chance of being part of a government,
which covers everybody else.

Yep, works for me. The difference between LD/"minor" and UKIP/"minority"
is as much one of acceptability to other parties as one of popularity, of
course. Either of the major parties were happy to go into coalition with
the LDs, neither would partner with UKIP.

Should regional parties be broken out of that, though? Even if they
polled 100% if the electorate, they'd never be "major", simply because
they don't even stand in enough seats.