BREAKING NEWS
Peter Robinson, leader of the DUP, has been defeated in Belfast East. The first major scalp of the contest.
I just took this off the BBC website. Could you imagine that phrase being used here.
BREAKING NEWS
Peter Robinson, leader of the DUP, has been defeated in Belfast East. The first major scalp of the contest.
I just took this off the BBC website. Could you imagine that phrase being used here.
BREAKING NEWS
Peter Robinson, leader of the DUP, has been defeated in Belfast East. The first major scalp of the contest.
I just took this off the BBC website. Could you imagine that phrase being used here.
We're talking about a country where the "Black and White Minstrel Show" was a leading BBC variety show until 1978.
http://www.nus.org.uk/en/News/News/NUS-condemns-election-officials-as-st...
Students have complained that they were denied the right to vote because of a decision to segregate student voters from other members of the electorate, the latter having been fast-tracked.
The latest update from the BBC election coverage: (available on CPAC in Canada)
The Conservatives have gained 26 seats
Labour has lost 25 seats
The Liberal Democrats have lost 1 seat
The Conservatives are unlikely to win a majority, as expected.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats do not appear to be making any gains tonight despite all the buzz earlier in the campaign.
Someone asked for percentages:
CON 35% LAB 28% LDEM 22%, : LAB to CON swing: 5.9%, betting market: 89% chance of hung parliament
Jeremy Paxman is a wonderfully obnoxious interviewer. Quite a breath of fresh air compared to Mansbridge or other defernetial Canadian types.
Current results: (325 of 650 seats)
Conservative 153 (35.5%)
Labour 122 (27%)
Liberal Democrat 23 (22%)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/election2010/results/
Labour and the Lib Dems combined have fewer seats than the Tories.
I was just thinking the same thing aka Mycroft! Luckily half the polls still need to be declared! Here's to hoping!
Does sound like Canada. Damn it.
Labour and the Lib Dems combined have fewer seats than the Tories.
So?
The only party given anything approaching a mandate tonight is the Conservatives.
It appears that Labour will have to cut a deal with not only the Lib Dems but also the lunitic fringe groups as well to stay in power.
Lib Dem support was obviously a mile wide and an inch deep. There appears to have been a fairly significant swing from the Lib Dems to the Tories (resulting in the loss of some incumbent seats), which has been counterbalanced somewhat by a swing from Labour to the Lib Dems (resulting in a few gains at the expense of Labour), but overall it looks like a wash for the Lib Dems. The Tories seem to be doing slightly better than the polls were predicting and it may be that at the end of the night, with the support (tacit or otherwise) of Unionist Northern Ireland MPs, he will have something close to a de facto majority. Seems doubtful that a Labour-Lib Dem coalition would have a majority of seats.
ETA: Best-Name-For-A-Cabinet-Minister-Ever Ed Balls has just been re-elected with a slender majority, denying the Tories their "Portillo moment". No senior cabinet figures have been defeated so far.
It appears that Labour will have to cut deals with not only the Lib Dems, but also the fringe groups as well, to stay in power.
According to the BBC, at this point in the evening the results are as follows:
Conservatives are up 56 seats
Labour is down 49 seats
Liberal Democrats are down 6 seats
According to the BBC it is the London seats, which are mostly yet to come in, which will determine whether Labour and the Lib Dems combined will have enough seats to form a government.
ETA: Best-Name-For-A-Cabinet-Minister-Ever Ed Balls has just been re-elected with a slender majority, denying the Tories their "Portillo moment". No senior cabinet figures have been defeated so far.
So Balls' up then?
I expect there will be a late surge for both Labour and the Lib Dems, as the seats in large urban centres (London, Birmingham, Manchester) which are traditionally more friendly to them than to the Tories, seem to be among the last to report.
The Conservatives have won very close to half of the decided seats. Given the dashed expectations of the Liberal Democrats, the remaining questions are how close the Conservatives will come to an absolute majority and whether the Unionists will have enough to push them over the top if they are close. I think Labour should be somewhat relieved to hand over power to the Conservatives in a minority situation, given the economic situation, particularly if the Tories don't have a working majority. It is looking like it will be somewhat similar to our last election.
For Labour to stay in power with the help of Clegg, Brown will have to step down as PM, and be replaced by ? Balls perhaps? This will be a fascinating test for democracy.
I expect there will be a late surge for both Labour and the Lib Dems, as the seats in large urban centres (London, Birmingham, Manchester) which are traditionally more friendly to them than to the Tories, seem to be among the last to report.
True. There's a large section of London seats that are not in yet, although they are not all going to go Labour.
Some are expected to go Conservative, including Finchely-Golders Green, Margaret Thatcher's old seat, which Labour is expected to lose.
Labour have held onto Hammersmith though, which is a blow for the Conservatives which they heavily targeted.
Caroline Lucas has won Brighton Pavilion to become the first-ever Green MP elected to Westminster.
The Green Party has just won its first seat ever in the UK, in Brighton Pavillon. It took the seat from Labour.
Will this inspire Elizabeth May?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/election2010/results/constituency/a69.stm
I expect there will be a late surge for both Labour and the Lib Dems, as the seats in large urban centres (London, Birmingham, Manchester) which are traditionally more friendly to them than to the Tories, seem to be among the last to report.
True. There's a large section of London seats that are not in yet, although they are not all going to go Labour.
Some are expected to go Conservative, including Finchely-Golders Green, Margaret Thatcher's old seat, which Labour is expected to lose.
Fair enough, but as you pointed out the Tories have had disappointing results in London so far. They have only picked up one seat - Battersea - and they have lost a number of seats they had heavily targetted such as Hammersmith and Tooting. Thus far the swing to the Tories from Labour has been much lower in seats with significant minority populations, which suggests to me that it is going to be rough going for the Tories in London. They might pick up a few seats around the margins (the aforementioned Finchley, and it looks like they are set to snatch Richmond Park from the Lib Dems) but I do not see a big swing to the Tories in London.
Greens have won their first ever seat, leader Caroline Lucas elected in Brighton Pavilion
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/election2010/results/constituency/a69.stm
The Lib Dems have just lost another seat - this one to the Conservatives in Richmond Park.
Leader of the British National Party loses by 18,000 to Labour in Barking
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/election2010/results/constituency/a11.stm
Labour also holds the neighbouring Dagenham seat despite a 5% swing to the Tories. The BNP edges the Lib Dems for third place.
Apparently the reason for the delay in counting the London seats is that there are a number of concurrent local authority elections, and so the ballots have to be separated and sorted.
LibDem and Labour Coalition, along with the one member Green party, socialist and labour, they might have enough seats to govern...
I expect there will be a late surge for both Labour and the Lib Dems, as the seats in large urban centres (London, Birmingham, Manchester) which are traditionally more friendly to them than to the Tories, seem to be among the last to report.
True. There's a large section of London seats that are not in yet, although they are not all going to go Labour.
Some are expected to go Conservative, including Finchely-Golders Green, Margaret Thatcher's old seat, which Labour is expected to lose.
Fair enough, but as you pointed out the Tories have had disappointing results in London so far. They have only picked up one seat - Battersea - and they have lost a number of seats they had heavily targetted such as Hammersmith and Tooting. Thus far the swing to the Tories from Labour has been much lower in seats with significant minority populations, which suggests to me that it is going to be rough going for the Tories in London. They might pick up a few seats around the margins (the aforementioned Finchley, and it looks like they are set to snatch Richmond Park from the Lib Dems) but I do not see a big swing to the Tories in London.
If that's the case, the total of Labour and Lib Dem may be greater than Conservative and Unionist, in which case Labour could retain power with the support of the Lib Dems and other parties. The BBC forecast is the Conservatives don't have enough seats to prevent that possibility.
Nick Clegg has alot of bargainning power, potentially speaking and their party must demand a referendum for PR REFORM, this could be epic!
Labour just got resoundingly defeated in Portsmouth North.
The Labour MP who was defeated here was involved in the Expenses controversy. Glad to see that several of the MP's involved in that scandal have been punished.
The gap between the Conservatives and the sum of Labour/Lib Democrat is narrowing. The Conservative tide looks to be ebbing and they are S.O.L. in terms of forming a majority. If the trend continues and the Lib Dems side with Labour then the Conservatives will not even be able to form a government.
Electoral reform would be a positive result out of this election. It might convince some political neaderthals in our own country that reform is necessary here as well.
Nick Clegg has alot of bargainning power, potentially speaking and their party must demand a referendum for PR REFORM, this could be epic!
There's one downside for Nick Clegg though - his party is not performing that well, and is actually losing seats. Considering the lack of mandate he has received, there is only so much he will be allowed to demand.
that scandal involved a lot of Conservative mp's too, Augs.Labour just got resoundingly defeated in Portsmouth North.
The Labour MP who was defeated here was involved in the Expenses controversy. Glad to see that several of the MP's involved in that scandal have been punished.
The gap between the Conservatives and the sum of Labour/Lib Democrat is narrowing. The Conservative tide looks to be ebbing and they are S.O.L. in terms of forming a majority. If the trend continues and the Lib Dems side with Labour then the Conservatives will not even be able to form a government.
Electoral reform would be a positive result out of this election. It might convince some political neaderthals in our own country that reform is necessary here as well.
The Conservatives have won the largest number of seats, and the Dems may be expected to side with them.
that scandal involved a lot of Conservative mp's too, Augs.Labour just got resoundingly defeated in Portsmouth North.
The Labour MP who was defeated here was involved in the Expenses controversy. Glad to see that several of the MP's involved in that scandal have been punished.
There were some Conservatives, but the majority of them were Labour.
In fact, no Conservative MP's have been charged to date, but three Labour MP's have.
Things are picking up now!
Nick Clegg has alot of bargainning power, potentially speaking and their party must demand a referendum for PR REFORM, this could be epic!
There's one downside for Nick Clegg though - his party is not performing that well, and is actually losing seats. Considering the lack of mandate he has received, there is only so much he will be allowed to demand.
I suspected they had alot more support, many of them held their noses to vote strategically for LABOUR to keep the Tory out. Their popular vote actually increased slightly.
Con : 271
Libdem and Labour : 268
This is such an exciting election.
Nick Clegg just spoke and acknowledged that it was a disappointing night for the Lib Dems.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives have taken another seat from Labour in Warrington South.
Leader of the British National Party loses by 18,000 to Labour in Barking
Losing a seat in Barking... I guess you could say he's having a 'ruff' night!
Look at that only 500,000 confirmed fascists in all England... so far.
The Conservatives have lost a seat in Wells to the Liberal Democrats.
This Conservative MP appears to be the first one so far to be punished for the Expenses scandal.
Do you think the US State Department is going to issue a statement expressing its concern over election irregularities, given the large numbers of people who were unable to vote?
The big news of the night is how the pollsters seem to have got it all wrong.
The impression was that the Lib Dems was going to make substantial seat gains and increase their share of the popular vote. The Lib Dems have already lost 7 seats and their popular vote share is not much more than the 22.1% they achieved in 2005.
Big surprise.
Finchley & Golders Green has finally reported and is back in Conservative hands!
Good to see this happen during Margaret Thatcher's lifetime. She deserved to see this.
What happened at the polling stations that prevented people from voting? Line ups? Do we know how much of the electorate were turned away?
The Liberal Democrats have lost another seat, this one in Camborne & Redruth, to the Conservatives.
tory took seat from libdem at camborne and redruth by 66 votes
sigh*