85 posts on an Israeli election and nothing on the UK election? No wonder this section of the board is a complete joke.

Anyway, most interesting election last night. If you look at percentage of vote, the Conservatives went up 1 percent and Labour went up 1.5 percent nationally, but that completely belies what happened underneath as what was a coalition government between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats has now against all pre-election polling become a Conservative majority. BBC released an exit poll last night after polls closed that everyone thought was wrong and was shown right over the course of last night.

National results:

Conservative 36.9% (+0.8%), 331 seats (+24)
Labour 30.4% (+1.5%), 232 seats (-26)
Scottish National Party 4.7% (+3.1%), 56 seats (+50)
Liberal Democrats 7.9% (-15.2%), 8 seats (-49)
UK Independence Party 12.6% (+9.5%), 1 seat (+1)
Greens 3.8% (+2.8%), 1 seat (even)

The Scottish National Party almost entirely swept Scotland, where out of 59 seats they took 56 of them. Scotland has been a Labour stronghold since the 1950s, and they now have as many seats in Scotland as the Conservatives. This in the aftermath of a failed independence referendum in the past year, this result will force that issue back into the fray. Scotland only results:

Scottish National Party 50.0% (+30.0%), 56 seats (+50)
Labour 24.3% (-17.7%), 1 seat (-40)
Conservative 14.9% (-1.8%), 1 seat (even)
Liberal Democrats 7.5% (-11.3%), 1 seat (-10)
UK Independence Party 1.6% (+0.9%), 0 seats (even)
Greens 1.3% (+0.7%), 0 seats (even)

The story in all the rest of the UK except for Northern Ireland which is its own quirky deal is the Liberal Democrats after having their best election in 2010 since World War I when Labour replaced them as a main party had their vote share collapse as they were punished following their coalition with the Conservatives. In reality the Liberal Democrats have always been kind of a protest party against Labour and the Conservatives, were all things to all people depending which part of the country you were in, there was tactical voting going on, and going into government forced them to make some concrete stands on certain issues that made voters angry. Their votes went to Labour, Conservative, and the SNP depending on where you live.

There was also the rise of UKIP which has not resulted in seats but definitely played a role in the election. UKIP are a Eurosceptic party which caters to the right of the Conservative Party, but looks to have also taken away working class voters from Labour outside of London. The result if you look England only is Labour are 9 points behind the Conservatives which is an improvement but you’d think they’d do better if UKIP weren’t there:

Conservative 41.0% (+1.4%), 319 seats (+21)
Labour 31.6% (+3.6%), 206 seats (+15)
Liberal Democrats 8.2% (-16.0%), 6 seats (-37)
UK Independence Party 14.1% (+10.7%), 1 seat (+1)
Greens 4.2% (+3.2%), 1 seat (even)

Similar story of sorts in Wales although there’s no SNP factor there to dismantle Labour as the Welsh nationalists Plaid Cymru have nowhere near their strength. Conservatives have their best result there in more than 30 years.

Labour 36.9% (+0.6%), 25 seats (-1)
Conservative 27.2% (+1.1%), 11 seats (+3)
Plaid Cymru 12.1% (+0.8%), 3 seats (even)
Liberal Democrats 6.5% (-13.6%), 1 seat (-2)
UK Independence Party 13.6% (+11.2%), 0 seats (even)
Greens 2.6% (+2.1%), 0 seats (even)

The aftermath is Labour leader Ed Miliband and Liberal Democrats leader Nick Clegg have resigned their party leadership. A lot of people expect Labour's leadership contest to be a bloodbath between different wings of the party. Labour are already blaming the SNP for Dave Cameron remaining Prime Minister. The SNP near-sweep of Scotland will force Scottish independence concerns/more autonomy back into play although with the Conservatives taking a majority the SNP won't be the kingmakers going in they thought they would be. Cameron and the Conservatives get an unexpected majority in Parliament after most everyone thought whoever would win would be in charge of a minority government.

[Edited on May 8, 2015 at 10:48 AM. Reason : /]

5/8/2015 10:29:54 AM

LOL I nearly started a thread, cuz my wife just voted a day ago, and even my 6 year old daughter was throwing around politicians' names, but then I didn't cuz I don't follow it so I don't know the parties/system as well as I do the US parties/system.

5/8/2015 5:31:26 PM

I think that the general feeling is that the UK is going to experience a rather strong movement to leave the EU. Most of it is driven by ant-immigration movements that arose in the UK once all of the borders opened up.

5/10/2015 2:10:19 PM

I would have commented on a thread about the election, but I didn't feel like starting one.

6/5/2015 9:04:32 PM

Snap election called by Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May today for June 8th.

Labour and UKIP from the last election are both a shambles and expecting large vote drops.

4/18/2017 12:56:02 PM