UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possible

[Lonemagpie]

Well, let's wake up to a bright new dawn of- Of more stealth taxes, of more encroachment on freedoms, of no repeal of any of the 1000+ petty news to criminalise the innocent as a revenue-raising scheme, of ID cards, CRB checks, dangerous cartoons, bans and censorship.

I was going to do a big rant about the obscenity of the party with the most votes and seats not winning; and the economic effects; and the sheer insanity of the most hated, freedom-destroying, government in a generation - and thrice-booted-out-for-corruption-but-still-pulling-the-strings Mandy - refusing to go when their mandate has been removed....

(It's rare that I agree with Brown or Harriet Harman, but they've both said that a strong government is needed for recovery. Unlike them, I can see that we have no such thing, regardless of the result here)

But it's too fucking depressing, too early in the morning, and I can't use a lot of the phrases I'd like to without fear of being sent to Belmarsh just for making throwaway remarks about the only apparent way left (in an ideal fantasy world) *to* get such crooked fuckers out of power.

So I'll climb into a bottle and find some suitable videogame in which I can blow shit up and assassinate evil despotic bosses. (Red Faction Guerrilla, probably)

And don't get me started on what the fuck happened to the Lib Dems? (Who no doubt will now form a Lib Lab pact in return for a promise of voting reform that Labour will never actually fulfil)

 

[Starkers]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

As Khan might say, the game's not over yet. I don't see how Clegg can prop up Brown after all the things he has said/intimated so far. And especially when he said that the biggest party should have the mandate.

If Brown, an unelected PM to begin with, remains PM after coming second then frankly I think we should stop being sanctomonious about other countries's democracy because we're practically in Iran here.

Nick Robinson made a good point this morning as well, if Brown did remain in place we would have a government completely unrepresentative of English voters who are the majority of British voters.

Cometh the hour cometh the man, no more fence sitting Clegg, are you a man of your word or just another lying politician?

 

[Deckerd]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

If Cameron forms a government it will be completely unrepresentative of the other three countries in the UK. The problem the LibDems have is that ideologically they are much closer to Labour than Conservative, so no matter what Cleggy says, his party will always vote that way, whip or no whip.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

I'm very disappointed too. I was rooting heavily for the LibDems and I don't understand why they lost seats to the fucking Tories, I just don't get it.

 

[Jim Gamma]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

Actually, Brown WAS elected to his seat. The PARTY elects the leader, not the people. (I think this is completely wrong, but that's just the way British law works.) The people just elect the party, who select a leader from the individuals in their party that have been elected.

EDIT: FWIW, no I didn't vote for Labour.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

On the paper. But in reality people do expect that the leader of the party they vote for leads their party either in government or opposition after the election, and rightly so imo.

 

[Candlelight]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

Circle of life. We just got conservatives in power here after nine years of a Labour government.

 

[Jim Gamma]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

On the paper. But in reality people do expect that the leader of the party they vote for leads their party either in government or opposition after the election, and rightly so imo.

Yes, and that's EXACTLY what happened. Just in case of misunderstanding, I'm talking about when Brown first became PM, not yesterday's farce of an election. Brown was elected to his seat, Blair resigned, Labour chose a new leader.

This time? Well, I think quite honestly we need to reconsider having elections on working days. I bet most of those "queues" were not around in the morning, simply because people have to work. If you set it up so that elections are on a non-working day (even going so far as to create an extra public holiday), there would be a lot less opportunity for people to say "Well, I didn't get the chance because of queues!"

I would also like to see Single Transferrable Vote and/or Proportional Representation, but I doubt that'll ever happen.

 

[Nerroth]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

I seriously hope this will end up to be the last Westminster election held under FPTP.


How is it supposed to be fair that the Lib Dems are only 4-6 points behind, in terms of vote percentage, to Labour, but only have just over a fifth of the seats elected (at the time of writing)?

From an Irish perspective, I find that to be less than ideal, to put it mildly (as it is under the FPTP system here in Canada).


Here's hoping that whoever Nick Clegg decides to do a deal with, that he sticks to his guns and holds out for STV to be on the table for an electoral reform referendum.

Once such a referendum is passed (well, assuming it would be, of course) it would be fascinating to see the kind of election which would follow, sooner or later - and how it would change the face of politics across the UK (as it already has done in Scotland and Northern Ireland).

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

As Khan might say, the game's not over yet. I don't see how Clegg can prop up Brown after all the things he has said/intimated so far. And especially when he said that the biggest party should have the mandate.

Somebody on the news just said they'd spoken to one of Clegg's aides who, when reminded of last week's promise that he wouldn't prop up a lame duck PM, said "well, that was when he thought Labour would be third"

 

[Starkers]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

If Cameron forms a government it will be completely unrepresentative of the other three countries in the UK. The problem the LibDems have is that ideologically they are much closer to Labour than Conservative, so no matter what Cleggy says, his party will always vote that way, whip or no whip.

And if Brown/Clegg team up their government would be completely unrepresentative of England, who are the largest country within the Union. This isn't going to end well whoever wins.

As to Brown's legitimacy. In 2005 Blair said he would serve a full term, and people voted for him on that basis. Now yes you don't vote for the PM but the party but still, people voted on the basis of Blair being PM for the entire term.

After Brown's goons forced Blair to stand down Brown became Labour party leader in a practically unopposed succession. This is a man who's only ever been elected to an ultra safe Labour seat, who became PM simply it seems because it was his turn after Tony, and who, when he went to the country for the first time, has clearly been rejected by the British populace.

 

[Starkers]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

On the paper. But in reality people do expect that the leader of the party they vote for leads their party either in government or opposition after the election, and rightly so imo.

Yes, and that's EXACTLY what happened. Just in case of misunderstanding, I'm talking about when Brown first became PM, not yesterday's farce of an election. Brown was elected to his seat, Blair resigned, Labour chose a new leader.

This time? Well, I think quite honestly we need to reconsider having elections on working days. I bet most of those "queues" were not around in the morning, simply because people have to work. If you set it up so that elections are on a non-working day (even going so far as to create an extra public holiday), there would be a lot less opportunity for people to say "Well, I didn't get the chance because of queues!"

I would also like to see Single Transferrable Vote and/or Proportional Representation, but I doubt that'll ever happen.

I have little sympathy. I voted at 8 before I went to work, and one of the people complining patently said she'd driven past at 6,7,8 then finally decided to queue at 9.15! If she'd bitten the bullet and queued at 6 she'd have been able to vote.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

If Cameron forms a government it will be completely unrepresentative of the other three countries in the UK.

Though, to be fair, this is perfectly normal *and* the reason they have semi-devolved parliaments...

The problem the LibDems have is that ideologically they are much closer to Labour than Conservative, so no matter what Cleggy says, his party will always vote that way, whip or no whip.

Quite a few are ex-Labour, there's a huge "anything to keep the tories out regardless of the effect on the country" element, and two thirds of the MPs and their NEC have to say yes to any deal - and they'll vote Labour.

Jeez, and I've spent the last decade supporting them... Talk about a waste! OTOH if they're sensible and go with the largest party (spectacularly impossible, as above) or at least refuse to go in with either side, then I could still like them.

Oh, FWIW, the constituency I'm in is a Tory gain, though it was marginal before.

 

[Jim Gamma]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

I have little sympathy. I voted at 8 before I went to work, and one of the people complining patently said she'd driven past at 6,7,8 then finally decided to queue at 9.15! If she'd bitten the bullet and queued at 6 she'd have been able to vote.

To be fair, though, this is a completely unexpected level of turnout; based upon previous elections, it would have been entirely reasonable to suppose that the queue would be a brief thing, and would die down quickly. Though I think I would have got in the queue if it had still been there at 7 after driving past at 6!

 

[Tulin]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

There was an election in England?!?

Seriously though, from an outsider's point of view, if you asked people in other countries who the PM has been for the last few years, I am sure many would be hard pressed to tell you. This Brown person has NO presence and is instantly forgettable. Tony Blair, however had a real presence in the media.

This Brown guy is just boring and dull.

 

[captcalhoun]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

who gives a shit if he's boring and dull, he got the job done. he's not there to be fucking charismatic and look good on TV, he's there to run the country and that's what he did.

fucking tories are a buncha fucking cunts. fucking tax cuts just cuz you're married or cutting inheiretance tax for the filthy rich. bollocks.

LABOUR put money into the NHS, schools and cut crime. INDEPENDENT STATISTICS show Labour cut crime. LABOUR gave us the minimum wage and gave OAPS free bus passes, winter fuel payments and TV licenses. and kids free nursery places and a trust fund. fuck the Tories and fuck that smug bastard etonian spin-master that leads them and his fucking daughter-of-a-baron wife.

 

[Dancing Doctor]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...2/UK-General-Election-2010-political-map.html

 

[Jim Gamma]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

The PM may not be "there to be charismatic", but alas, you don't win public confidence without it. If you don't inspire confidence, then you don't get the votes. And if you don't get the votes, you lose. Simple as that.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

Nu Labour's illegal war and outrageous assault on civil liberties in the name of the "war on terror" and "protecting the children" goes way beyond the stuff Portillo & Co. was coming up with back in the dark days of the 1990s...

Nu Labour aren't Labour any more, they're some sort of shadow Tories now. Only worse. They did great in 1997 (I voted for them), did all those fabulous things that Captcalhoun mentions, but somewhere around 2003/2003 they fell to the Dark Side (I fell to the Lib Dems) and have plummeted further ever since, becoming even more a bunch of cunts than the Tories. (None of this shit would have happened if John Smith had lived)

Being a writer, civil liberties and political and individual freedoms are my issues at heart, and Labour today are worse than any other party on that score.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Re: UK election. So much for our votes counting - worst result possibl

who gives a shit if he's boring and dull, he got the job done. he's not there to be fucking charismatic and look good on TV, he's there to run the country and that's what he did.

fucking tories are a buncha fucking cunts. fucking tax cuts just cuz you're married or cutting inheiretance tax for the filthy rich. bollocks.

LABOUR put money into the NHS, schools and cut crime. INDEPENDENT STATISTICS show Labour cut crime. LABOUR gave us the minimum wage and gave OAPS free bus passes, winter fuel payments and TV licenses. and kids free nursery places and a trust fund. fuck the Tories and fuck that smug bastard etonian spin-master that leads them and his fucking daughter-of-a-baron wife.

Well its not over yet, 43 seats still undeclared, every seat counts now, Con need 35 for a clear win, if labour were to take the majority of those 43 seats that would put the lib Dem's in a power to strike one hell of a deal with either party.