Off Topic Great Britain General Election May 7th 2015.

Ever read any Raymond Williams??

Here's a tidbit from his influential book The Long Revolution

'It certainly seems necessary to look for for meanings and values, the record of human creative activity, not only in art and intellectual work, but also in institutions and forms of behaviour. At the same time, the degree to which we depend, in our knowledge of many past societies and past stages of our own, on the body of intellectual and imaginative work which has retained its major communicative power, makes the description of culture in these terms, if not complete, at least reasonable. It can indeed be argued that since we have 'society' for the broader description, we can properly restrict 'culture' to this more limited reference. I find it very difficult, after the many comparative studies now on record, to identify the process of human perfection with the discovery of 'absolute' values, as these have ordinarily defined. I accept the criticism that these are normally an extension of the values of a particular tradition or society.'

 

Election results: Tories confident as Labour falters
The Conservatives are confident David Cameron will remain PM with early general election results suggesting the party will be close to a majority.
Labour faces being wiped out in Scotland by the SNP and is failing to make the gains it needs in England to stand a chance of forming a government.
The Lib Dems are on course to be decimated with the exit poll predicting they will have just 10 MPs.
The exit poll suggested Labour will get 239 MPs to the Tories' 316.
Results so far suggest it is accurate but the majority of the 650 seats have yet to declare.
In other election developments:

If the exit poll is accurate, Mr Cameron will be able to remain in Number 10 as the head of a minority government without the need for a coalition - although he might have to rely on the support of the DUP or the Lib Dems.
Even if Labour leader Ed Miliband was able to persuade the Lib Dems to join the SNP in backing a Labour government, he would not have the necessary numbers to get his legislative programme through Parliament in a Queen's Speech.
The finishing line needed to form an absolute majority is 326, but because Sinn Fein MPs have not taken up seats and the Speaker does not normally vote, the finishing line has, in practice, been 323.

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Labour insists Mr Miliband could still be prime minister because the coalition's majority will have disappeared but senior party figures have conceded they are having a disappointing night

: "If this exit poll is right, Andrew, I will publically eat my hat"
Labour is being hammered in Scotland by the SNP, with Nicola Sturgeon's party predicted to take 58 of the 59 seats.
Jim Murphy, leader of the Scottish Labour Party, and shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander have both lost their seats to the SNP, which is benefiting from a 27% average swing from Labour.
Conceding defeat, Mr Murphy said it had "proven hard to turn round years of difficulties with the Scottish Labour Party in just five short months".
He congratulated the SNP on the scale of their victory but said he intended to continue as the party' leader in Scotland.
"Scotland needs a strong Labour Party and our fightback starts tomorrow morning," he added.
Labour has failed to make the headway it wanted in the South of England and the Midlands, failing to take its top target seat, Warwickshire North, back from the Conservatives.
Its progress in London has not been as strong as pre-election polls suggested.

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David Cameron chats to supporters at his count in Witney

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Ed Miliband arrives at his count in Doncaster with wife Justine
There is a recount in Bradford West, where George Galloway is battling Labour to retain the seat he won in a by-election.
Bradford Council has reported Mr Galloway to the police for allegedly breaking election law for tweeting about exit polls before polls closed, the BBC has learned.
The exit poll suggests the Lib Dems will lose 47 seats, with many of their high profile minister and MPs facing defeat, and the party finishing behind the Greens in early results.
Lib Dem election chief Lord Ashdown told the BBC: "If this exit poll is right I will publicly eat my hat."

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Analysis by Laura Kuenssberg
This is turning into not just a bad night, not just a terrible night, but an absolute out-and-out disaster that threatens the existence of the Labour Party in Scotland.
Jim Murphy has just vowed to stay on as the Scottish Labour leader to start the "fightback". But Labour in Scotland has promised before to listen and learn after 2007 and 2011 when they lost in the Holyrood Parliament in Scotland. Could they recover?
Read Laura's analysis in full

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David Cameron, arriving at his count in Witney, said it was "early days".
Conservative minster Michael Gove said: "We haven't had an incumbent government increase its majority like this since 1983 and it would be an unprecedented vote of confidence in David Cameron's leadership."
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has arrived at the Glasgow count at the Emirates Stadium, where she told reporters she believes it will prove a "very good night for the SNP", adding that she would like to "lock the Tories out of power".

 

Forgetting the shock of these Tory gains, what is absolutely disgusting about the results of this election are the numbers who have turned out to vote UKIP, even if thank god they have only won one seat in parliament, and the turn away from the Liberal Democrats and what their politics represent historically. Nationalism and the narrow minded, discriminatory, prejudiced and racist principles that inform it are on the rise big style in this country. Ashamed to be English right now and repulsed by the citizens of the UK and their absolute parochialism and total insularity. I'm out.

 

Incredible. It'll be hailed as a fantastic Tory performance, but the reality is that the sweaties haves used the election to further their Nationalist agenda, the liberals got mashed but unbelievably it appears that their hardcore have moved to the right not the left, and even more amazing is that ****ing UKIP have taken Labour votes more than Tory ffs. I despair at the general level of political intelligence in this country. Feels like '92 all over again this debacle.

 

People are absolute ****ing knuckle dragging morons mate. Day by day this only becomes clearer to me

 

I don't understand why the SNP's rise is coming as such a shock to the media, particularly the BBC. It was clear from the referendum on Scottish independence, even if the YES campaign was ultimately successful, that there has been a groundswell of opinion and feeling gathering and coming to fruition in Scotland itself that is desirous of much, much greater autonomy at Westminster. Without true independence a hugely increased presence of SNP MP's at Westminster is the logical alternative and remedy to the YES vote's loss in the referendum.

 

I'm pleased us UKIP voters were able to give you such disgust good sir!

 

Liberal are the biggest loser, all their ministers in the coalition government lost their seats
apart from Nick Glegg.

"like turkeys voting forChristmas" Jim Callagham

General Election 2015: Ed Miliband 'Has To Resign Today'

 

Ed Balls loses his seat. He's an odious prick so that's great news.

 

I think he cost Labour the election along with SNP.

 

Very sad bunny here folks!! Hampshire, a county that I love has gone completely blue, save Southampton Test which is Labour!!!

 

That's ****ed it eh...#twats

 

Labour has to reinvent itself all over again!! I feel it is going to take more than five years for that to happen. Need to be much more proactive in their policies and require a leader to knock the cockiness out of Cameron. We need another Harold Wilson (best PM this country has ever had)

 

The BBC coverage is a cross between a wake and a tribute for Labour which is embarrassing given the fact that it's supposed to be an impartial organisation.

 

As far as I can see the country is more divided than ever. If Cameron gets his majority he has to keep his right wing happy, so how is that going to equate with the needs of Scotland or Northern Ireland, Liverpool, Manchester, and the North East where the Tories have no appeal and no MPs?

 

Marvellous

SNP have killed labour and so I hope the Scots get a ruse awakening now

Cameron should victimise them first I hope

The one sole bright spot is Boris ****ing Johnson won't take over and nuke us

 

Scotland has spoken. They need to be given the opportunity to become independent. Personally I think it will be a disaster for Scotland but I'm sure they will be allowed back into the union if and when an independent Scotland is on its knees.

 

Boris will be the Tory leader for the next election. Guaranteed!

 

Would much prefer Angela Merkel to Cameron who has the capacity to unite her country? Hate the Tories, absolutely hate them ever since I was 11 years old in the 1964 election? We need to educate the minds of the CHAVS in the South and East folks!!

 

Election results: Miliband sorry as Balls loses seat

• 16 minutes ago
• From the section Election 2015

Media caption Ed Miliband reflects on a disappointing night for Labour
Labour leader Ed Miliband has apologised to MPs who lost their seats with shadow chancellor Ed Balls among the casualties.
Mr Miliband said it had been a "very disappointing and difficult night" as his party was thrashed by the SNP and struggled in England and Wales.
It also lost its election campaign chief Douglas Alexander and its leader in Scotland Jim Murphy.
But Mr Balls was the most high-profile figure to lose his seat.
Speaking after the results were declared in Morley and Outwood, where he lost to Conservative candidate Andrea Jenkyns by 422 votes, he said his "personal disappointment" was "as nothing" compared to his sorrow at the national picture.
Labour also lost previous leader Gordon Brown's former constituency to the SNP.

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Ed Balls said questions would arise about the future of the United Kingdom
Latest projections suggest the Conservatives are heading for a majority in the House of Commons.
Mr Miliband said: "This has clearly been a very disappointing and difficult night for the Labour Party, we haven't made the gains we wanted in England and Wales and in Scotland, we have seen a surge of nationalism overwhelm our party.
"Now I want to say to all our dedicated and decent colleagues in Scotland who have lost their seats that I am deeply sorry about what has happened.
"The next government has a huge responsibility, it has a huge responsibility in facing the difficult task of keeping our country together."
Casualties

Mr Alexander lost his seat to a 20-year-old student after a massive 26.9% swing from Labour to the SNP in Paisley and Renfrewshire South.
Conceding defeat, Mr Murphy said: "The party that has traditionally been the tireless champion of the underdog now finds itself in the position of being the underdog.
"Scotland needs a strong Labour Party and our fight-back starts tomorrow morning."
However, there have already been calls for Mr Murphy to resign.

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Jim Murphy had held East Renfrewshire since 1997
Ian Davidson, who lost his seat in Glasgow South West, said: "Morally, as the man who has led us to the biggest ever disaster that Labour has suffered in Scotland of course he can't continue."
In the first declaration of the night, Bridget Phillipson did increase her majority in Houghton and Sunderland South.
However, it is outside of Labour's strongholds in the north-east of England that the party has struggled.
It has taken a battering in Scotland where a surging SNP are expected to win 58 seats.
Former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown's old seat of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath has fallen to the SNP along with a slew of other seats.
In Glasgow South West there was a massive 35% swing from Labour to the SNP as Christopher Stephens more than quadrupled the SNP vote to oust Labour.
National problem
But it is was not just in Scotland that the party struggled to make a breakthrough.
It failed to take its number one target seat, Warwickshire North, where the Tories increased their share of the vote.
Even in some safe Labour seats, including Wrexham, the party delivered a smaller majority with the Conservatives gaining votes.
The party also lost the Vale of Clwyd to the Conservatives.
There was some good news with Labour gaining seats such as Ealing Central and Acton from the Conservatives.
More definitive gains have been made from the Liberal Democrats, whose vote has collapsed.
They took Simon Hughes' seat in Bermondsey and Old Southwark as well as Lynne Featherstone's in Hornsey and Wood Green. Redcar was taken with a 19% swing from the Lib Dems to Labour.
'Not Ed's fault'

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In his speech, Mr Miliband made no reference to his leadership of the party which is the subject of speculation in light of the results.
Former Labour MP Dame Tessa Jowell said: "You can't lay all this on Ed Miliband.
"What's happened in Scotland to Labour hasn't just happened in the last three or four years, we don't need a new leader and this is not the moment to talk about whether we need a new leader or not."
She added: "It takes time to rebuild and that's the challenge to Labour in Scotland - to understand why the SNP have managed to sweep the country."
Full results across the UK as they happen