2015 UK General Election campaign & aftermath discussion thread.

I've just woken up. Are we looking at a majority?

glad the evil mcvey is gone

xp

dunno yet

Charles Kennedy out.

Just woken up, any cause for optimism? doing better than I thought but looks like a bunch of holds - can't tell if we've had results where it matters yet

No cause for optimism at all, as far as I can tell.

no labour breakthru in england only 5 gains but 5 losses in relation to the tories

main story in england...ukip vote strong in certain parts on england outside london, drift of working class to ukip from labour - has damaged labour in many seats and marginals, letting tories to hold on and indeed some gains from labour like telford, lib dem collapse - in some seats their vote has drifted to tories meaning that labour fall short.

https://twitter.com/NCPoliticsUK/status/596534217904914433

BBC FORECAST UPDATE

CON 325
LAB 232
SNP 56
LIB 12
UKIP 1
GRN 1

I kicked the radio hard against the wall this morning and wished death upon most of this country again, another day in paradise!

Danny Alexander is toast, as expected.

Well, by the looks of things I guess I'm going to be thanking Scotland and UKIP voters for five more years of Conservative bullshit.

Not to mention the number of utter twats in England and elsewhere that actually voted for that utter cunt.

poll

tax

anyway, sorry uk.

3m+ ukip votes

Farage is actually quite important, i will be genuinely worried when they get someone who is actually good at this shit.

woken up. wish i hadn't.

SNP's only real rivals in Scotland are now the pandas in Edinburgh Zoo.

woken up. wish i hadn't.

― Cram Session in Goniometry (Tom D.), Friday, May 8, 2015 6:02 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

spare a thought for those of us who stayed up all night

This is the first one I haven't stayed up for.

a key question is not what can Labour do to win a majority in England, but what can the Tories do to lose it?

So, will ukip give up now? They have not exactly surged..

this might be the most satisfying possible outcome. let the people have what they want, let them have it in fucking shovelfuls, let's have another 10 years of untrammeled English Conservatism.

To lose it? Fail to deliver their promises or, conversely, deliver a booming economy and the electorate go "Ok, where's my share?'

I want some Lib Dems, party of progressive politics, to explain why so many of their voters have decided to vote Tory, handing them seat after seat. Can we assume that Lib Dem supporters have liked what they've seen of the Tories in coalition? Has the Lib Dem campaign been, to borrow a phrase from earlier, 'too left wing'? Have they always been Tories in disguise (yes).

Jessie Rae!!! Standing in Berwickshire!!! Someone mentioned him in ILM the other week.

People vote on the economy. It should never be a surprise but always is. There are millions of people on what would be considered an ok wage who have gone through at least one redundancy process since the crash and worry about job security or who can pay for a mortgage at 3% but would struggle at 4%, etc. Any change to the status quo is scary, particularly when the Labour case for making it is so limply presented. There will be another downturn at some point, there will be inflation and there will be unemployment and when that happens the Tories will feel it. Until it happens, I think they will probably rule.

Though I think a lot depends on internal Tory politics. If they start pandering to the 1922 Committee, they could end up in trouble sooner.

what could Labour have done differently?

cos in their own narrative this was a bold, radical manifesto.

bbc not letting us hear caroline lucas' acceptance speech, cutting to a george osborne interview

cunts

xp

seems like most of you guys have been banging on about wanting labour to be be much further 'left' than it is currently. can't see any evidence that this would garner them more votes in england

so what should they do?

I was wondering that myself and I genuinely don't know whether the gains they would have made from building a properly aggressive platform on housing, employment rights, etc, would have offset any losses. They had five years to build a case for the Tory "economic miracle" being illusory and the cuts being ideological and pretty much failed, though.

stay centre right and hope the tories move further right? or is that what happened this time and people like further right

I can't believe this. Are there any silver linings? Probably will leave the EU with this electorate, BBC and NHS not looking good either.

Why can't people vote for more than self interest or even supposed self interest?

Are there any silver linings?

Nope.

The only good thing about the EU situation is that radical change there would massively upset the picture of stability and it doesn't look like people are willing to make even the mildest gambles on the economy then it comes to the crunch. That and the fact the Tories could go back to biting lumps chunks out of each other when it does become an issue.

NHS will probably be ok. BBC license fee risky though.

Lumps chunks? Idk

The one thing Labour could've done from 2010 onwards is dispel the lie that the economic crash was caused by spending on public services etc.

After the Referendum, nobody dreamed that Cameron would come back to the result with 'OH HAI, English votes for English laws' instead of saying 'hey, thanks for sticking with the Union, Scotland!' and that's probably the thing that sealed the fates of both Labour and the SNP. Divide and rule, peasants - Tories do this better than anything, including actually running a country.

The BBC are currently suffering with an almighty case of Stockholm syndrome: why prop up arseholes who are actively working to destroy you?

How totally depressing

I genuinely thought that Labour would be able to form a centre left coalition

bleak doesn't even come near - closest thing to what I feel:

this might be the most satisfying possible outcome. let the people have what they want, let them have it in fucking shovelfuls, let's have another 10 years of untrammeled English Conservatism.

― vote yay! for constitutional monarchy (Noodle Vague), Friday, 8 May 2015 06:12 (50 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and yes, tory party as party as economic stability had rep to shake (idiotically they were borderline economically illiterate in the coalition). But I really do think the most hysterical, panicked and widespread right wing media campaign I can remember had a huge part to play.

I went to bed after my supposedly marginal SW London seat was held by the Tories by an even greater margin than last time. Torn between despairing that the toxic right-wing narrative (and the press was even more hysterical than usual, seemed to combine right-wing desperation with clickbait desperation) actually WORKED on this terrible island, and the usual failure of Labour to provide even the hint of a SNP-style anti-austerity platform. Not sure it's comforting that both are probably to blame. Obviously it's less mourning a Labour loss and more being appalled that after the past five years and that campaign that people went out and voted for more of it.

Turns out there is indeed room amidst despair for schadenfreude though, hahahaha @ the Lib Dems

ha, xp

The BBC are currently suffering with an almighty case of Stockholm syndrome: why prop up arseholes who are actively working to destroy you?

prob cos the people working there are tories

i'm honestly just sickened by this. what the fuck is wrong with people?

Has Ashdown eaten his hat yet? Another Lib Dem lie.

People mostly like untrammeled english conservatism though surely, and have done for decades, unless it massively and clearly screws up the economy in which case they reconsider.

cold light of day apparently comes with a nuclear winter setting

It was my wife's birthday last night and I made the decision to ignore everything before and after the exit poll and I was entirely vindicated in that decision.

There is a gigantic bunfight coming down the line over Europe, I think Cameron might struggle to control his party with or without a majority.