The Official UK Election Thread! 6th May it is!

[Small Town Jesus]

If you are in a lab vs lib dem seat and you want to keep the tories out and are a labour supporter at heart there is no valid reason to tacticaly vote lib dem. Thus your position is not supported by the availible evidence.

If your position were correct the lib dems would have lost a lot more seats.

Who said I was in a lab vs lib dem seat? My constituency was brand new and therefore a three way split. As the Libs were experiencing a surge at the time (real or not) I and other like me were briefly tempted to vote for them as possibly the best way to try and out vote the Tory. Cleggs comment helped change my mind.
As it happened it was all academic as the Tory got in with a 3000 majority.

Also, I never said it was a major reason for the Libs poor showing last night, simply possibly one of them.

 

[Small Town Jesus]

I don't recall him saying that.

I remember him saying that the party with the most votes and seats should have the chance ot form a government, and I remember him saying he was open to talks with whoever came first.

I don't remember him saying that he would absolutely go with the Tories.

It was certainly interpreted that way and was commented on at the time that he would have been better off saying nothing. It certainly ruffled a few feathers in his own party.

 

[JihadJane]

Quite possibly. But one of the items that seems to be part of the discussions is the length of time a coalition would work together.

And I don't think the LibDems would be thanked by the electorate for forcing them to vote again within a year or so.

Why not? It's not that much effort to cast one vote per year!

 

[JihadJane]

Forget him now. His deeply unpleasent character is out of the house, and his party has been decimated.

He's gone.

How is Galloway any more unpleasant than the rest of the bunch of tossers who get into power?

Obviously a major guess, but could it be that in between getting mug onto and in various media his constituents thought he was ignoring them?

Additionally, perhaps he wasn't enthusiastic enough/was too enthusiastic about killing wild animals.

 

[dudalb]

Oi, Yank, who are Labor?!

What's the reporting on this in the States?

It is competing with the Floods in Tennesee for the #1 spot.
Pretty much straight up,LOts of explanations of what a Hung Parliament is, since we have nothing like this in the US. Some comparasion with the 2000 Us election, particularly the accusation of voter irregularities.
The defeat of Gorgeous George is getting a lot of attention, since, sad to say, Galloway has gotten more publicity in the US then any other member of Parliament (except for the PM) until Clegg got a boom recently.
C Span has straight feed of the BBC coverage last night. Probably got a huge boost in viewership from the Brit ExPat community in the US.....

 

[dudalb]

How is Galloway any more unpleasant than the rest of the bunch of tossers who get into power?

Ah, sorry that your hero got humiliated yesterday?

 

[MarkCorrigan]

How is Galloway any more unpleasant than the rest of the bunch of tossers who get into power?

I'm not surprised you think he's so glorious, but honestly? He's corrupt (really really corrupt, not like the namby-pamby expenses claims corrupt of most of them) and he actively supports a group which, no matter what else you say about them, actively aims to target civilians and uses child soldiers.

That's pretty disgraceful when compared to making the taxpayer pay for a porn film or some wrapping paper.

 

[Rolfe]

Ouch, where's Rolfe...

Just for the record, I was at the count in Dumfries. I didn't get home till 5.30am, and I went to bed! I'm now catching up with the thread.

Rolfe.

 

[commandlinegamer]

He's corrupt (really really corrupt

I just wonder where he stores all those millions of barrels of oil of his. It's not like a flat in London or his Portugal house will have that big a garden.

 

[Delscottio]

Its quite interesting looking at the overall National results here. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/

The tories only improved their percentage of the vote from last time by 3.8%That seems really really low, the next biggest increase in their percentage vote is the BNP

Mind our system is crap when you look at the popular vote.

 

[mbp]

If there was to be a referendum about about proportional representation do you think it is likely to pass? Or would most people be happy to keep the system they know?

 

[Debaser]

Why not? It's not that much effort to cast one vote per year!

General Election February 1974 - 31.3m turnout

General Election October 1974 - 29.1m turnout

Evidently it is...although it would probably depend on the reason for calling the second election.

 

[Debaser]

Forward with Cameron to a classless society!!

18 out of 306 MPs are from Eton...

 

[Undesired Walrus]

Although one of them is black so that makes it all alright.

 

[Fiona]

Well I remember prince charles saying in all seriousness that he spoke for the ordinary people ...

 

[Lothian]

Although one of them is black so that makes it all alright.

Is he 40 and from Portsmouth with 30 years service in the navy ?

 

[Matthew Best]

In related news to our weird electoral system, in the Great Yarmouth council elections two candidates tied on 1,034 votes. The returning officer offered them a pack of cards and told them that the candidate who drew the highest number would win. Tory Bob Peck picked a three while Labour's Charlie Marsden drew a seven and claimed the seat!

 

[Rolfe]

Glasgow East goes to Labour.

The SNP will NOT be pleased.

Anybody who thought we were going to hold that seat was in cloud cuckoo land. It could only have happened with an enormous sea-change towards the SNP, which is always unlikely to happen in a Westminster election.

Soapy Sam is right about "paint a brick wall red and they'll vote for it". I don't pretend to understand it. Someone last night said, "It's aye been", which is about as close as you'll get. Conservative with a small c.

At Westminster elections there always tends to be a squeeze as the vast bulk of the publicity focusses on "the three main parties", and the TV debate situation was only part of that. This time it was always going to be bad, because Labour quite legitimately represented that they might hang on if only their core vote stayed on board. Still, experience shows that even when it's blindingly certain that the Tories are going to get a landslide in England, Scottish Labour still manages to sell that line. The SNP put on a couple of percentage points compared to 2005, but was still well down on the Euro-elections.

Interestingly, it looks as if the nationalist parties (9 seats) might hold some measure of balance of power. It's all very tricky though, because experience also shows that it's almost impossible for the SNP to support any Tory proposal at all, even if it's entirely uncontentious and beneficial.

Rolfe.

 

[mummymonkey]

Not a single seat in Scotland changed hands (wrt 2005). It's like the last 5 years never happened. (Also suggests the "TV debate effect" is zero.)

 

[Undesired Walrus]

Why are Labour doing so well in the council elections?