Heartland

Well, good news for the Greens in Brighton! She'll be utterly ineffective on her own, but there we go. It's a start.
BNP never had a chance of taking Barking. They were talked up just to ensure people would vote for the rather unpleasant Margaret Hodge. Even the Tory party polled more votes then them.
What happened to the big burst of enthusiasm for Clegg and the Libs? Did the media assasination of him over the past few weeks take it's toll?

I do think a lot of people trusted Gordon Brown, so it wasn't altogether a smart move for Clegg to suggest that he wouldn't support him if the need were to arise... And he was essentially saying he'd hold the country to ransom over electroal reform (rightly or wrongly). He became arrogrant... Personally, the guy has always gave me the creeps. He's very'manufactured' - I question his sincerty. I don't get that feeling from Cameron or Gordo (although what they are sincere about is radically different!).

Still, the ball is very much in the Lib Dems' hands as the possibility of a hung parliament looms...

Prediction: David Miliband will be PM by...2012. Rinse, repeat...

the_inescapable_truth wrote:I do think a lot of people trusted Gordon Brown, so it wasn't altogether a smart move for Clegg to suggest that he wouldn't support him if the need were to arise... And he was essentially saying he'd hold the country to ransom over electroal reform (rightly or wrongly). He became arrogrant... Personally, the guy has always gave me the creeps. He's very'manufactured' - I question his sincerty. I don't get that feeling from Cameron or Gordo (although what they are sincere about is radically different!).

Still, the ball is very much in the Lib Dems' hands as the possibility of a hung parliament looms...

Prediction: David Miliband will be PM by...2012. Rinse, repeat...

But should the ball be firmly in the court of the least popular party? If the Tory party have the most seats, and the majority of the vote, I can't see how they can not form the government. And I dont quite see the justification of allowing the two losing parties to join together and form one.
Anyhoo, there's still the Ulster Unionists in theory for the Tory Party.

DeWinter wrote:What happened to the big burst of enthusiasm for Clegg and the Libs?

Dunno, but we've been eating plenty of his crisps at work

BNP told to get bent in Glasgow

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/ ... 666697.stm

DeWinter wrote:But should the ball be firmly in the court of the least popular party? If the Tory party have the most seats, and the majority of the vote, I can't see how they can not form the government. And I dont quite see the justification of allowing the two losing parties to join together and form one.
Anyhoo, there's still the Ulster Unionists in theory for the Tory Party.

Well as the situation stands (as I understand it) neither main "power block" works as an overall majority: (BBC predicted results)

Lab + Lib + SDLP + Alliance come in at 320
Tory + DUP + independent Unionist come in at 315

(leaving SNP, Plaid Cymru, the Green and Sinn Fein unaffiliated)

Constitutionally, the sitting PM has the right to try and form a government.

However there is an interesting twist here; all but 9 of the Tory MPs are in English seats. This means that the Tories could claim to have a mandate from the English voters while Labour has a clear mandate in Scotland and Wales. Whichever way things go, it's difficult to see a way forward that's acceptable to all sides.

Further; whoever forms the next government is probably going to make some pretty unpopular economic decisions in the next few months, and if (as seems likely) another election is called in the next year or so, things could change drastically again.

If I were Nick Clegg I'd be thinking very carefully about what to do next. And the Millibands will be circling over Gordon's head pretty soon...

I think the Scots/Welsh Nats have made their price quite clear, sheltering from any budget cuts for Scotland/Wales. Be hard to justify that to the English, especially if it's by a government still headed by Gordon Brown.
I've always wondered if the Tory Party will ever position itself as an overtly English party. They'd be in government in perpetuity nearly in an independent England
I'm beginning to think the scarwemongering was right about a hung parliament causing chaos. I really don't see how this can work, myself.

I imagine it pained Clegg to show any favour to the Conservative, the party which is ideologically most separated from.

None the less, despite an ugly result, he's stuck with his principles and made it clear that the party with the largest proportion of the seats and votes has the right to seek to form government.

Stick the three of them in the THUNDERDOME

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls... Dyin' time's here

If you look at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/ and click "proportional" so the constituencies come out the same size, some interesting results:

Scotland, Wales, the North of England, and London are all steadfastly Labour. The Tories have won most of their seats in "Middle England" -- the Home Counties and rural areas.

If DeWinter is allowed to fantasise about England having a perpetual Tory government, am I allowed to suggest that the North could secede?

Aye, I'm a firm believer that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel...

BUT

Bloody hell Scotland, you've made me enormously proud
And I tend to be ambivalent about independence, but this is seriously making me think we should break away and a be one of those fabulous little progressive Northern European countries with modern social attitudes and public services that are the envy of the world.

Hey, a girl can dream!

Preach Sister, Preach!

F*ck it, I'll move North if that happens and you saddle us with an English Tory government!

boudicca wrote:Aye, I'm a firm believer that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel...

BUT

Bloody hell Scotland, you've made me enormously proud
And I tend to be ambivalent about independence, but this is seriously making me think we should break away and a be one of those fabulous little progressive Northern European countries with modern social attitudes and public services that are the envy of the world.

Hey, a girl can dream!

I always kent you were one of us!

despite principles and promises etc, if clegg goes with the tories i'll just feel betrayed and sick.

emilystrange wrote:despite principles and promises etc, if clegg goes with the tories i'll just feel betrayed and sick.

Most of me will but there's a small part that will try and comfort myself by thinking that they might reign in the worst of the Tory's policies.
I'm probably being far too generous and optimistic at that, but the alternative is too awful to contemplate.

i will still feel sick...

Was about to write at least we won't see that Limpid Oldgit Cheeky girl guy or whatever his name is again but he's just been on tv...

apparently the americans are baffled by our election with 3 main parties, and one reporter said that he thought cricket was complicated, never mind all this

they are Amerikans, they call crisps chips - I pity da foos!

James Blast wrote:they are Amerikans, they call crisps chips - I pity da foos!

Which reduces this thread to the other one. Blastyknickers wins the internet.

markfiend wrote:If you look at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/ and click "proportional" so the constituencies come out the same size, some interesting results:

Scotland, Wales, the North of England, and London are all steadfastly Labour. The Tories have won most of their seats in "Middle England" -- the Home Counties and rural areas.

If DeWinter is allowed to fantasise about England having a perpetual Tory government, am I allowed to suggest that the North could secede?

Oh, don't get me wrong. I wouldn't want that. I didn't vote Tory, I assure you. It simply seems to me to be a logical thing for the Tories to do. They'll never win Scotland over, it's over-represented in Parliament and it's Labour M.P's have no qualms about interfering in English affairs, unlike it's SNP ones. I can't imagine they are THAT attached to the Union and the place at the big table internationally to want to be locked out of power by Labour and the Libs when they could effectively banish them for good.
Would Scotland want the North, anyway? It'll have trouble enough financing itself, never mind trying to bankroll a part of England heavily dependent on local government for employment. All the places you've mentioned voting Labour are so, London included. Outside the City, London is actually very poor.

As for Scandinavian-style Scotland..the big problem with that is that they are small Socialist monocultures, with a heavy Protestant work ethic, which Scotland, like England, doesn't have any more. I speak as someone who actually lived in one. They are also safe from outsourcing, mass migration and many of the other economic trends because their language isn't widely spoken.

EvilBastard wrote:Blastyknickers

that's Pants to you Bastard!

emilystrange wrote:apparently the americans are baffled by our election with 3 main parties, and one reporter said that he thought cricket was complicated, never mind all this

The Americans are, in their defence, baffled by the oddest things. "Stand to the right" signs on escalators, "step aside" warnings on subway platforms, and why an invading occupying force has difficulty imposing a political concept on the populace by means of 50,000,000lb bunker-busting kid-vapourising depleted-uranium munitions.

Although it is going to be one bollocks of a laugh to watch Obama try to do business with a Lib/Con coalition

DeWinter wrote:But should the ball be firmly in the court of the least popular party? If the Tory party have the most seats, and the majority of the vote, I can't see how they can not form the government. And I dont quite see the justification of allowing the two losing parties to join together and form one.

The point is that, constitutionally, the Tories don't have the legal right to form a government until the caretaker government (ie Labour) says they can (which has now happened). All the Tory MPs rabbiting on about how they'd won the popular vote and more seats than anyone else are forgetting that they'd very clearly ruled out electoral reform - which they'd need to support in order to claim the right to form a government on the result alone. They have to choose whether to have their cake or eat it.

DeWinter wrote:I'm beginning to think the scarwemongering was right about a hung parliament causing chaos. I really don't see how this can work, myself.

It does in Europe. And Scotland. And Wales. And Northern Ireland. The only reason it's causing chaos is because we're not used to one.