2015 UK General Election campaign & aftermath discussion thread.

So with their majority, presumably the Tories can change the law to get rid of the mandatory five-year term and go back to calling the election whenever they think they are most likely to win? And they can reduce the number of constituencies and gerrymander the boundaries?

HOL.

Sorry guys, it's not up to the Scottish electorate to vote in a way that doesn't scare folk off Labour in English marginals.

It's going to be a smaller majority than Major managed in '92.

I can only hope that, with the 'nutters' on the back-benches holding more sway, the Tory party eats itself over the next 5 years in the same way it did back then.

And that a credible alternative appears ...

The viciousness of the right-wing campaign showed how rattled they were. Polls weren't showing what the outcome was. They will be as surprised as anybody.

SNP destroying Lab was also hard in terms of strategy because it would've meant suddenly subscribing to more anti-austerity when they were saying all along they would not 'cut as fast as the Tories, but we'll cut'.

In the end the 'rainbow' coalition is a hard sell = too much instability, people and politicians aren't used to it. No one really cares for electoral reform (remember the vote to change the system?)

Redwood's rocked up and firing the gun on a new Tory EU battle before it's even done. God I hope it seriously distracts them from fucking over everything else. But danger this solidifies UKIP.

Ed has just resigned.

lol thanking Milli Fandom.

Awful Dan Hodges is right that the Tories fucked up finding a leader after Hague's snap resignation, and got it much better after taking time when Howard went. Labour needs to understand how they lost this to choose the right leader to win the next one

UK vote share change since 2010 after 641 of 650 seats
-% +%
UKIP+9.5
SNP+3.1
GRN+2.8
LAB+1.4
CON+0.7
LD-15.1

Redwood's rocked up and firing the gun on a new Tory EU battle before it's even done. God I hope it seriously distracts them from fucking over everything else. But danger this solidifies UKIP.

― stet, Friday, 8 May 2015 12:09 (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ah, Redwood, Chief Nutter

Votes per seat:

SNP 26k
Con 34.5k
Lab 40.5k
Lib Dem 295k
Green 1.1m
Ukip 3.8m

What seats are left to declare? Any Labour ones?

Ranil Jayawardena has refused to shake hands with UKIP's Robert Blay during their post-results speeches following an alleged shooting threat.
Mr Blay offered to shake hands with his Conservative opponent, who held on to the seat at Hampshire North East following the count at Hart Leisure Centre, Fleet.

http://dougald.nu/the-only-way-is-down-18-notes-on-the-uk-election/

http://plashingvole.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/you-know-nothing-john-snow.html

terrible piece = when people shove a passport after a result like this then please leave.

Can't believe how blue the map is. Feel a bit funny. I was zoomed in on my local area and everything was blue except Oxford East and I kept zooming out and everything kept being all blue.

My feeling of despair for the future was not quite total until that.

Cameron has just said he wants to make Great Britain 'greater still', he is such a fucking mediocre cretin.

can he change its name to Greater Britain

'greatest britain' or gtfo

Talking of gtfo, all polling organizations gtfo, John Curtice pwns the lot 'o youse.

Can't we just burn these Tories onto a cd

No, it has to be onto a USB stick which we leave on the underground.

Do you remember when leaders lost at elections and didn't resign afterwards? Some of them even got to win subsequent elections...

Wilson. Heath. umm... others!

Cameron?

Cameron already being replaced by a female leader as we speak - Tory spokeswomen congratulated him on winning but decried that he was not sufficiently 'thing'

Churchill as well, but that's something of a special case.

that 'great' britain bollocks. I like the story that says its first use was as a pun:

But critics of the Historia (Geoffrey of Monmouth's book) were by now becoming vocal. The most devastating attack came in 1521 from the pen of the clergyman-scholar John Major (1489-1550). In his modest and good-humoured book Historia Maioris Britainniae he demolished the entire edifice of Brutus, Scotia and the like, though he was entirely happy to support the Arthurian stories - perhaps a wise precaution during the reign of Henry VIII. The title of Major's book is interesting; it is probably a pun on the the author's name but it is usually translated as The History of Great Britain - the first time Britain was called Great.

Modest and good-humoured, that sounds like John Major

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to cope with the inevitable moment when Blair pops up, deludedly claiming vindication.

Ok, so the reason it is called "Great Britain" is because of John Major.

I need a lie down.

I want to make Missenden greater still.

St Ives has finally declared, for the Tories, like a last little kick there.

Not even in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the Lib Dems ending up with 8 seats! That is sweet. And funny as fuck.

Not even in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the Lib Dems ending up with 8 seats!

I think I said this would happen (on here) years ago, but not like this - I think I was saying that they were unlikely to hold the balance of power again as they'd win so few seats, but I wasn't imagining a scenario where the SNP won the whole of Scotland and Labour ended up about 100 seats behind the Tories.

It begins
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/snoopers-charter-set-to-return-to-law-as-theresa-may-suggests-conservative-majority-could-lead-to-huge-increase-in-surveillance-powers-10235578.html

Third party per share of vote (where they polled) = SNP obviously.

A friend on FB pointed out that the bitterest ash in the mouths of the Lib Dem faithful must be that a lot of their vote turned to UKIP because they were only ever a protest vote, not the next age of UK political consciousness or whatever the fuck.

Non-FPTP and UKIP: STV or similar is still pretty good at keeping out parties that most of the electorate despises.

St Ives takes ages cos they have to fly in ballot boxes from the Scilly Isles.

Lab losing Scotland for one and now just reminded we'll have Boundary changes on the way too.

With the trend for female leaders we can look forwrad to Teresa May as perfect Thatcher Mk.II material for next PM.

The only thing that can stop this: complete economic and worldwide meltdown. Crisis and the spectre of...well, lets stop there.

St Ives takes ages cos they have to fly in ballot boxes from the Scilly Isles.

same situation in shetland and orkney, but it didn't take them half as long

Smash at this country

Whilst the Silly Isle has voted in a tory govt

or the big part of it at least

Xps I meant 'smdh' but mobile predictive text wins again.

I think I said this would happen (on here) years ago, but not like this - I think I was saying that they were unlikely to hold the balance of power again as they'd win so few seats, but I wasn't imagining a scenario where the SNP won the whole of Scotland and Labour ended up about 100 seats behind the Tories.

Actually, that's not what I said, now I've found it (about a page down from this) in this discussion of how it was being taken as a given that the Lib Dems would always hold the balance of power from now on:
DEM not gonna CON dis NATION: Rolling UK politics in the short-lived Cleggeron era

Tim Wigmore @timwig · 19m 19 minutes ago

The BNP got 1,667 votes - drop of 99.7% on 2010

In what way does Scotland actually benefit from this SNP landslide? Sweeping the board in Holyrood I get, they can materially affect things there, but the Tories have no reason or incentive to offer them any concessions at all as far as I can see. And while they'll be grateful to the SNP for killing Labour off there, they could still do something ultra-vindictive there.

Still assuming another Indyref in the next five years is highly unlikely.

In Westminster, not at all. But then that's the whole point of the indy campaign, innit