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 Koppo wrote:

 notprop wrote:
Yes, the financial stability would be terrible?!?

'Cos unfunded promises bring stability?

My personal opinion of the financial plans of Lab vs Tories was that the Lab one was better funded.

And yet they wouldn't have cleared the deficit?

No, because Britons have proved that we are a mature enough society that we are willing to set the national accounts straight and not continue the rot of ever increasing borrowing.

The economy is now reaping what was sown over the last term and in the same way we have to stump up for our debts.

This is a good thing.

Ugh, those days you wake up to the prospect of 5 more years of Conservative government...

I think in every way this is a victory for Cameron. Not only does he have a working majority (since Sinn Fein don't turn up), but he has probably severed the head of any 'significant' opposition, with Milliband, Clegg and Farage all expected to resign. Sturgeon will hang on, but with the SNP landslide in Scotland, how long is it before they're gone from the UK entirely, and we're left with Cameron the only party leader in Westminster with more than one term's experience. And without Clegg to keep happy, he and the Tories are going to have free reign.

Called it on UKIP not being as significant as everyone was saying, winning only one seat and losing their leader. Now the Conservatives are through, and we'll get the referendum on the EU, UKIP are essentially a spent force.

I'm pleased to see the Lib Dems get annihilated, it's exactly what the deserve after breaking their promises, selling themselves out and sacrificing everything they stood for. I shan't be sad to see the back of Clegg.

I'm not sure quite where Labour have gone wrong, except possibly Milliband appearing as weak (although I'd argue Cameron is little stronger). In England and Wales, they actually gained seats (their overall loss is less than loss to the SNP in Scotland), but even then it wouldn't have been enough to challenge the Conservatives. As to where they go from here, I think they'll sadly move closer to centre rather than compete as an actual left wing party (at which they were beaten by the SNP). At which point, they may well lose my support, if they do indeed move further from their principles to get closer to parliament.

The SNP will see themselves as major winners here, but I think it'll be a while before we see what they can achieve. Even with Labour they've failed to keep the Conservatives out, and unless they do press for another referendum, I'm not sure what they can bring to a national parliament. They have a set out principles and policies I'm strongly in favour of, but I don't expect any of them to come to pass in their current position. It'll be interesting to see, though.


I'm also wondering where we'll be in five year's time with Party Politics. UKIP will likely be gone, the LDs will be just ghosts in a political graveyard, and the SNP may not even be a part of the union. Could we be seeing this age of multi-party politics coming to an end after just one election, before returning to the traditional two party decision?

/\/\ out of curiosity, how so? Labour was funding it by taxing bankers bonus and mansion tax, which would have just meant bonuses were lowered and shares would be offered as bonuses instead, and house prices would suddenly cap out at about 1.9 million.

However WRT scotland, even if all the scottish seats were labour, theyd still lose. England were scared stiff of witless Ed and Balls team, saw what was coming and said, 'nope', 5 years of full tory control to see if they can actually do the deficit sorting they stated , £8bn increase in NHS spending planned and we get a clear out of the poor candidates in Lab and LD and we see a resurgent left in 2020?

I've just heard Nick Clegg's speech I thought it was very good.

I really do hope the Lib Dems refresh and come back.

They are a good party in principle. There's too much nationalism and negativity being used by the other parties.

I hope they're better able to cleanse themselves and show off their liberalism.


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Blimey, looking at some of the successful SNP candidates...

I think they could have put a highland terrier up for election and still won

Annnd... thats Clegg, Miliband and Farage confirmed as resigned..

Will be interesting to see what happens in 2 years at the next local election. Perhaps LD will make a comeback that way? Labour needs a leader with a strong personality and leadership skills. Can't see anybody obvious at the moment, other than perhaps John Bercow? I saw an interview with him a few years ago and he seemed ok, not perfect, but at least he had a personality or maybe David will come back? The trouble is the whole lot of them (all parties) are dire personality wise.

 angelofvengeance wrote:
Annnd... thats Clegg, Miliband and Farage confirmed as resigned..

The alarming thought now is that as Cameron is only doing one term, whoever takes over Labour next has five years to get their act together before we get another Conservative government under May or Osborne, which is terrifying...

So Cameron won? So sad. I was hoping for some sort of political implosion. It makes it easier for when Texas invades, er helps restore order.

 Koppo wrote:

Gee, thanks Scotland... (See this is why we can't let you go, without you it'll be Tories forever)

The Labour party have absolutely no one to blame but themselves. If the Labour party still represented the views of the Scottish people they would have been re-elected.

I wonder if Labour will move back to the left now? The centre right doesn't seem to be working for them anymore and their demolition in Scotland must surely provide some rich food for thought. The UK as a whole most definitely needs a major left wing party, certainly if the UK political scene is to have any relevance.

At least the Kippers have been torpedoed and will now hopefully sink without a trace. Without Farage they have no public face and their solitary MP will be able to do nothing of any note.

 Frazzled wrote:
So Cameron won? So sad. I was hoping for some sort of political implosion. It makes it easier for when Texas invades, er helps restore order.

Never fight a war on two fronts Frazz!!! You've got to deal with the Fed Gov first!

Hold on a mo, you might be ok, leave Chuck to sort out the Feds, leaves the rest of your forces available to come over and free us

And there we have it. 326 seats for Conservatives.

So, we're all but done, here are my thoughts (not that anyone cares. )

The big reveals of this election are twofold. Firstly, Labour's rot has begun to set in seriously. For years now, they've been relying on the block vote of the working class man, when they ceased to represent him ideologically (and the working class man began to cease to exist) about fifteen years ago. And that's given time for a generation to come in who quite simply don't remember the actions of the old Labour Party, the things they fought for, and even the things they won. Which means their loyalty is no longer assured. You cannot rest on past glories forever.

Labour has lost its way. It no longer knows who or what it represents. Blair, the architect of New Labour, was revealed to be of little substance, and socialism seems strikingly outdated in today's Britain. Simply chasing the vote, encroaching on Tory/Lib Dem policies, and saying anything to win a vote merely makes the public hold you in contempt, and think 'Here comes new boss, same as old boss'. As more older people die out, and the generations flux, I think we are going to see Labour dwindle further until they figure out who they are, and what they stand for again.

The second thing being shown here, is that the Liberal Democrats are no longer being perceived as the 'automatic' third choice for 'not the other two'. Most of the Lib Dem loss of votes has actually swung to UKIP, which to me reveals that many of their voters weren't actually Liberal at all, but rather people just ticking the 'other' box on the polling slip. In Scotland meanwhile, the SNP have now come to inherit that place.

Now I'm not sure that either of these parties are in it for the long haul. UKIP may well be defanged by an EU referendum, and the SNP grabbing so many votes is a more of a vote against Westminster than it is a vote in favour of the SNP. A lot of their voters are newly registered, and after the referendum memory dies away, we may find the SNP vote begins to wither as a result. If UKIP manages to reform itself after the EU referendum, they too, may begin to cut into the SNP protest vote.

All in all, it looks to me like a solid case of the Tories winning, simply because they are infinitely more structurally stable than any of their opposition. He who fights longest, may well beat he who fights hardest. After all, who remembers a Lib Dem majority now?

The whole Scottish / SNP vote is a terrible joke / mess.

You can't have a campaign to encourage Scotland to stay in the Union, but then dismiss the SNP when it comes to an election. we are still a Union and all the seats count to who has overall control of the Union. The whole thing about English votes for English seats or Scottish votes for Scottish seats is something for after the General Election. When laws are being made, if they only affect wales, then the Welsh only vote on them, the same with Scotland and England.

The SNP should of publically agreed that the drive for another referendum was 10 - 20 years away, which is no different to any other referendum that has been held in this country, which would of taken away one of those fears that Cameron was playing on. Ed should of said he would be of prepared to work with the SNP, if such a time scale was agreed to. Perhaps they may of saved a few seats if this had happened.

That is a depressing sight all that Blue

 notprop wrote:
No, because Britons have proved that we are a mature enough society that we are willing to set the national accounts straight and not continue the rot of ever increasing borrowing.

The economy is now reaping what was sown over the last term and in the same way we have to stump up for our debts.

This is a good thing.

It was the office for budget responsibility (I think, or some other body) which said that Labours plans were more likely to actually happen and that the Tories plan to eliminate the deficit was more likely to fail. So I was taking a realistic promise over an unrealistic one.

It was however a close call to make and it was the OFBR that swung me.

 Wolfstan wrote:

The SNP should of publically agreed that the drive for another referendum was 10 - 20 years away

They did, with the caveat that certain things (such as the withdrawal from the EU) would probably trigger one early.

Given that MPs have seats in the parliament for the entire country things such as EVEL are a nonesense without the creation of a relevant political forum for such things.

Gorram Tories...


Only decent thing to come out of all this is a stark example of what happens to a party which blatantly betrays its core voter base.

I haven't seen the British this disappointed since they heard the full version of Babylon Zoo's Spaceman

.. so What will Boris Johnson do then ?

prior to today/last night Cameron's weak point was his general lack of electoral success -- think we can scratch that one out now then.

Cameron has said he's not going to stand again -- TBF that might change -- and I dunno if Johnson could/can wait that long either....?

Clegg given some token position in Europe too then ?

Oh :





Gracious as ever there George !

edit :

http://news.channel4.com/election2015/05/08/update-5634/

.. WTF ?

Bloody hell! What the feth happened? I'd love to reply to other people's posts, but there's too many.

I crashed and burned at about 5am else I would have been here sooner.

Clegg resigned. Yeah!

Miliband gone, Farage gone. Ketara called it right on UKIP.

As for the SNP, I was quietly confident we'd get 40, now I'm disappointed we didn't win them all.

As for Dave, well, I never seen that coming. Five more years of the Tories

 Koppo wrote:

 notprop wrote:
No, because Britons have proved that we are a mature enough society that we are willing to set the national accounts straight and not continue the rot of ever increasing borrowing.

The economy is now reaping what was sown over the last term and in the same way we have to stump up for our debts.

This is a good thing.

It was the office for budget responsibility (I think, or some other body) which said that Labours plans were more likely to actually happen and that the Tories plan to eliminate the deficit was more likely to fail. So I was taking a realistic promise over an unrealistic one.

It was however a close call to make and it was the OFBR that swung me.

The OBR has been depressingly negative about Conservative economic moves over the last parliament.

A lot of the Labour ideas are silly tinkering too, though.

Ed Miliband, Harriet Harman, Douglas Alexander, Jim Murphy, and Ed Balls have all bitten the dust. Gordon Brown and Alastair Darling resigned just before the election.

That leaves...Diane Abbot, Chuka Umunna, and possibly David Miliband in the wings. That's it. I actually cannot think of any other Labour politicians. Their leadership cadre has been absolutely decimated. The Lib Dems meanwhile, have lost Vince Cable and Danny Alexander, the two most obvious Clegg successors, as well as Charles Kennedy.

This has been quite the purge of left-wing British politicians.

EDIT:- I just remembered Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper. But those two were third tiered in the Labour party. I wonder which of those two or Chuka will get it?

 Ketara wrote:
Ed Miliband, Harriet Harman, Douglas Alexander, Jim Murphy, and Ed Balls have all bitten the dust. Gordon Brown and Alastair Darling resigned just before the election.

That leaves...Diane Abbot, Chuka Umunna, and possibly David Miliband in the wings. That's it. I actually cannot think of any other Labour politicians. Their leadership cadre has been absolutely decimated. The Lib Dems meanwhile, have lost Vince Cable and Danny Alexander, the two most obvious Clegg successors, as well as Charles Kennedy.

This has been quite the purge of left-wing British politicians.

If that lot were ever left-wing, then my name's Clement Atlee

Like most people, I had my calculator at the ready for totalling up a combination of Labour/SNP/Welsh nationalists etc etc to form a coalition.

That went well.

Question for anybody who voted Conservative: did the prospect of a Lab/SNP coalition make you more likely to vote Conservative, or was it something you were doing anyway.

Commentators have said that the Tory campaign of using the SNP as a bogeyman, worked well in Scotland. But in the long term...


Long term, the Tories have two issues to deal with. Scotland, and of course the EU.

Dave maybe happy now, but I remember the John Major years, and Tory backbenchers made his life hell over the EU issue.

Things will be interesting.

I have several points I would like to make

1. Cameron scraping into government with two (?) seats majority is not a major victory. It actually puts him a couple of scandals or heart attacks away from being a minority government. Nearly six out of ten voters didn't want him in power.

2. Yes, the Conservatives probably lost votes to UKIP. They probably gained votes from the Liberals. The Liberal vote collapsed from about 25% to under 8%, all those votes had to go somewhere.

3. UKIP are nasty scum but they scored 13% of the vote and got no (?) seats at all. There is something wrong there.

4. The SNP may have won all the seats in Scotland but they only won half the votes.

All the above is evidence of a democratic deficit in the UK constitution, IMO.

Ketara is right about the Labour Party.

 Paradigm wrote:
Ugh, those days you wake up to the prospect of 5 more years of Conservative government...

I think in every way this is a victory for Cameron. Not only does he have a working majority (since Sinn Vein don't turn up), but he has probably severed the head of any 'significant' opposition, with Milliband, Clegg and Farage all expected to resign. Sturgeon will hang on, but with the SNP landslide in Scotland, how long is it before they're gone from the UK entirely, and we're left with Cameron the only party leader in Westminster with more than one term's experience. And without Clegg to keep happy, he and the Tories are going to have free reign.

Called it on UKIP not being as significant as everyone was saying, winning only one seat and losing their leader. Now the Conservatives are through, and we'll get the referendum on the EU, UKIP are essentially a spent force.

I'm pleased to see the Lib Dems get annihilated, it's exactly what the deserve after breaking their promises, selling themselves out and sacrificing everything they stood for. I shan't be sad to see the back of Clegg.

I'm not sure quite where Labour have gone wrong, except possibly Milliband appearing as weak (although I'd argue Cameron is little stronger). In England and Wales, they actually gained seats (their overall loss is less than loss to the SNP in Scotland), but even then it wouldn't have been enough to challenge the Conservatives. As to where they go from here, I think they'll sadly move closer to centre rather than compete as an actual left wing party (at which they were beaten by the SNP). At which point, they may well lose my support, if they do indeed move further from their principles to get closer to parliament.

The SNP will see themselves as major winners here, but I think it'll be a while before we see what they can achieve. Even with Labour they've failed to keep the Conservatives out, and unless they do press for another referendum, I'm not sure what they can bring to a national parliament. They have a set out principles and policies I'm strongly in favour of, but I don't expect any of them to come to pass in their current position. It'll be interesting to see, though.


I'm also wondering where we'll be in five year's time with Party Politics. UKIP will likely be gone, the LDs will be just ghosts in a political graveyard, and the SNP may not even be a part of the union. Could we be seeing this age of multi-party politics coming to an end after just one election, before returning to the traditional two party decision?

I'm also happy to see the Lib Dems get their just deserts, but like I say, Conservative backbenchers + The EU = Major problems for Tory Leaders. Dave may be happy now, but 18 months down the line?

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Dave may be happy now, but 18 months down the line?

He will be thinking about transitioning to civilian life.

Luckily I will be shielded from whatever excessive cuts the Tories will be inflicting over the next few years but I'm glad I have a secure and well paid job and don't have to rely on any benefits.

The silver lining in this is that an independent Scotland has just gotten a step closer which Dave will doubtless be helping along with his partisan posturing.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I have several points I would like to make

1. Cameron scraping into government with two (?) seats majority is not a major victory. It actually puts him a couple of scandals or heart attacks away from being a minority government. Nearly six out of ten voters didn't want him in power.

2. Yes, the Conservatives probably lost votes to UKIP. They probably gained votes from the Liberals. The Liberal vote collapsed from about 25% to under 8%, all those votes had to go somewhere.

3. UKIP are nasty scum but they scored 13% of the vote and got no (?) seats at all. There is something wrong there.

4. The SNP may have won all the seats in Scotland but they only won half the votes.

All the above is evidence of a democratic deficit in the UK constitution, IMO.

Ketara is right about the Labour Party.

Agree with you about the democratic deficit, but that system has just given the Tories a majority, so the chances of them wanting to change it are zero.

As for the small Majority, do you remember John Major in the 1990s? That went well for the Tories

It's a Tory win, but their vote seems to have flatlined at about 36%. Compare that to Heath and Thatcher who were polling in the 40s.

Maybe the Tories were successful because their vote held up, rather than the country genuinely wanting them in.


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 Silent Puffin? wrote:

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Dave may be happy now, but 18 months down the line?

He will be thinking about transitioning to civilian life.

We'll be at the mercy of Boris! Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Actually, that would be good news for Scottish independence

 Ketara wrote:


This has been quite the purge of left-wing British politicians.

I'm wondering if this is a part of a larger trend in the post-recession West. The US voted in a Republican Congress, we've got Merkel in Germany, I believe the French left got blasted in their last election. Then we have the Greeks daring to elect a socialist, anti-austerity party and the whole of Europe went into meltdown.

Are left-wing politics finally dead in the Western world, or is it just that people would prefer to suffer in stability than risk change?

 Paradigm wrote:

Are left-wing politics finally dead in the Western world, or is it just that people would prefer to suffer in stability than risk change?

I think its more a case of politicians and the mainstream media thinking that left wing politics are dead. The SNP result suggests a different narrative.

 Paradigm wrote:

 Ketara wrote:


This has been quite the purge of left-wing British politicians.

I'm wondering if this is a part of a larger trend in the post-recession West. The US voted in a Republican Congress, we've got Merkel in Germany, I believe the French left got blasted in their last election. Then we have the Greeks daring to elect a socialist, anti-austerity party and the whole of Europe went into meltdown.

Are left-wing politics finally dead in the Western world, or is it just that people would prefer to suffer in stability than risk change?

It's a myth that left-wingers bankrupt a country and right-wingers restore economic stability.

In my lifetime I've seen the Tories in charge when the Black Wednesday disaster happened, and I've seen them cause recessions left right and centre with their property bubbles.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I have several points I would like to make

1. Cameron scraping into government with two (?) seats majority is not a major victory. It actually puts him a couple of scandals or heart attacks away from being a minority government. Nearly six out of ten voters didn't want him in power.

And will be hugely vulnerable to back bench rebellions.

 Kilkrazy wrote:

3. UKIP are nasty scum but they scored 13% of the vote and got no (?) seats at all. There is something wrong there.

4. The SNP may have won all the seats in Scotland but they only won half the votes.

UKIP did get one. However, your right, they got 13% of the vote and SNP only got 5%. Lib Dems got 8%. I understand the issues with FPTP and PR systems and think that FPTP is the better system, but still not ideal, however I can't help thinking that the SNP have power far beyond what they should do. I hope they use it wisely or we may face more calls for changes to the electoral system which will hurt them now they are no longer a minor party, and help UKIP, which I would rather did not happen.