Whilst it wasn't the result I wanted personally I do believe I advised on here that I had backed a conservative majority. what would I know eh?
Dan , simply shows your head rules your heart! Not a bad idea in politics! Personally the trust in Labour to behave in a financially responsible manner is gone! People have accepted that austerity WAS required and accept still is required. When Ed was asked outright whether Labour had overspent when last in power and he replied "no" was possibly an honest answer, in his head, but not what people wanted to hear. Having sat up until 630 this morning I have to say it was a fantastic evening/morning and nobody does denial like a politician discussing an exit poll!
Oh and of course Conservative are now the 2nd strongest party in Scotland (the only one not to lose a seat other than SNP) so to that ;-)
Amazing betting on the next Labour leader with Yvette Cooper as 5-1 favourite. I can only think that with that field they'll be leaders of the opposition for some years to come.
Paddy Ashdown refuses to eat his hat. I was hoping to see this on TV today http://www.mirror.co.uk/usvsth3m/paddy-ashdown-refuses-eat-hat-5658572
“It’s the economy stupid...” The Labour Ghost of 1992 haunts Ed Miliband Ed Balls gone (finally some numbers that add up), Douglas Alexander gone (well done Mhairi Black, the youngest MP in nearly 350 years), Jim Murphy gone Danny Alexander gone, Charles Kennedy gone, Simon Hughes gone, Vince Cable gone, Ed Davey gone, David Laws gone George Galloway gone (and under police investigation for breach of electoral law) Nick Clegg survives (thanks to Tory tactical votes) Natalie Bennett not elected Nigel Farage not elected Al Murray not elected The Liberals back to where they were in the 1950s Who will quit as party leader first: Clegg or Miliband? How about Yvette Cooper (Mrs Balls) for Labour leader? To come: Complete “Devo Max” (including fiscal autonomy) for the Scots – let the SNP do what their electorate want Devolve more powers to Wales and Northern Ireland English votes only on English laws Finish the job of fixing the economy to generate more money to fund the NHS Introduce measures to improve productivity so that wage levels begin to rise Where are the £12bn in welfare cuts going to fall? Well done to anybody that backed the Conservatives at decent odds...
I wouldnt trust snp with more powers. Theyve done very little with what theyve had. They ran on a "we will get cameron out" fear vote. Why did a 59 seat nation buy into such nonsense? And why did they listen to a woman who wasnt even involved directly?
The SNP have caused the downfall of Labour and the Lib Dems. I think a lot of people have voted tactfully to stop the SNP having any say in Government
Scottish National Party 1,454,436 votes 56 seats. Democratic Unionist Party 184,260 votes 8 seats. UKIP 3,830,029 votes 1 seat. How ridiculous is that?
Laughable. But why would those in power, who benefit from this ridiculous system, do anything about it? Resignations left, right and centre I see. I can only hope that the Labour Party takes a long, hard look at itself, fires all the spin doctors and starts to focus on grass root politics. The video of Milliband repeating himself incessantly, which was posted on this thread, showed everything that is wrong with the current Labour party. Hindsight is a great thing, but with that numpty as candidate the writing was on the wall for Labour.
Maybe it does lads but changing that system could deadlock the country election after election after election. Not something I would like to see happen. Coincidentally I also think it's rather unfair to effectively dismiss the opinions of roughly half the population for five years just because one party wins more seats than another. There's no fair way to do it. Personally I'm delighted with the result and find it nauseating that my Twitter feed is full of Labour supporters (and mainly extremely passive ones at that) complaining about the end of humanity as we know it.
Is it my imagination, or does conservative politics usually garner more public support in harder times?
Labour caused their own downfall. Electing Ed Milliband as leader had the same impact on their electoral prospects as electing Ian Duncan Smith did for the Tories back in the day. General elections should be about much more than the personalities of party leaders, but the electorate doesn't tend to look that far beyond the obvious. Ed looks like a geek, and that was enough for many voters to dismiss him. That accounts for England and Wales anyway. **** knows what happened in Scotland. I think they just wanted to stick two fingers up at Westminster. Which is a bit weird considering they just voted to stay in the union. Still, what can you expect from a nation where the men wear skirts?
I remember saying exactly this a few months back. The better looking of the labour/conservative leader usually ends up as prime minister. Many laughed when I said it, but it definately helps to gain votes. Not everyone who votes is that clued up on the politics side of things. But I do think the threat of the SNP also played a part
Glad that's all over!! To be selfish my government pension will receive at least a 2.5% for the next five years. Plus sterling will remain strong for my trips to Munchen, Nurnberg, Regensburg, Augsburg. Bamberg, Mittenwald, Garmisch-Partenkirchen plus 'oop north' to Koln. Oh,nearly forgot, my annual visits to Paris for Le Week-end International de L'Obstacle at Auteuil. Did you hear about the punter who sauntered into a bookies in Glasgow and put on £15,000 in crisp £50 notes at 7/1 on a Conservative ovarall majority.
The strangest result in the GE must be Edinburgh South. With all the large swings to the SNP in the rest of Scotland the Labour candidate held this constituency with a 10.86 swing (turnout 74.85%). This constituency includes the predominantly wealthy areas of The Grange, Marchmont and parts of Morningside. To help anyone with suggestions I judge that such a constituency in the south east of England would likely be a Conservative stronghold with a majority in the region of 15,000 plus.
There is quite a lot of mileage in that argument. The Tories played it smart early on by depicting the SNP as the tail wagging the Labour dog. Miliband acted way too late in trying to distance himself from that prospect and effectively handed his Scottish MPs their P45s. The Liberal Democrats were on a hiding to nothing everywhere because they had so many marginal seats from the student vote in 2010. They lost most of their English seats to the two big parties because their nearest opponent (either Labour or Tory) targeted them (e.g. Cameron spending a lot of time campaigning in the South West). The most notable casualty of the UKIP vote was Esther McVey on the Wirral. She lost her seat to Labour because of the Tory votes that defected to UKIP. Historically, that is true. Over the last ninety years, Labour have dug the country into an economic hole and then the Conservatives have been brought in to sort it out. As they are perceived as the ‘nasty’ party, the electorate usually put up with them until they have fixed the mess and then go back to Labour. The current Labour Party do not seem to realise that except for Scotland and a few northern areas such as Merseyside and the North East, left wing politics does not win elections. That was why Blair moved them to the centre and won three elections.
The Scots were promised devolution powers at the Independence Referendum in exchange for the No vote, so they will be getting something. I would give fiscal powers to Holyrood because Alex Salmond’s proxy Nicola Sturgeon would find it almost impossible to implement the SNP’s “progressive” policies given that oil revenues have halved in the last year and their massive spending commitments; and that would illustrate to the people of Scotland the fallacy of their anti-austerity agenda.
