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cpnichol
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Posts: 5684
UK Election Results
Posted: May 7, 2010, 13:09:57
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And the winner is...


Er...


No one.

We now have what's called a hung parliament. There's no interesting way to say this so I'll just try to keep it short.

We have 650 "seats", each seat is an area that elects a Member of Parliament (MP) to represent them. In order to win the election one party needs an overall majority, that is 326 seats. The results were:

Conservatives - 306
Labour - 258
Liberal Democrats - 57
Others - 28

The others are mostly made up of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish parties.

So no party has the 326 seats they need to say "we're running things and picking a Prime Minister". What happens now is that the two main parties are going to try to make deals with the other parties to form a coalition government with more than 326 seats.

That's going to be tough for the conservatives, they can rule out support from the Scottish and Welsh parties although they may get 8 from Northern Ireland. I can't see the Liberal Democrats supporting them either as their policies are so far apart.

So that leaves Labour with fewer seats but a better chance of getting support from some of the other parties as they are closer politically. That could mean Gordon Brown, who was never elected as he just took over from Tony blair, ends up as Prime Minister again despite getting his parties arse kicked into 2nd place. In theory that could be up to 8 years as Prime Minister despite never having won an election.

Not sure what happens if no one can put together a coalition, I think Gordon Brown just gets squatters rights.

There was also a lot of people who didn't get to vote because the polling stations closed despite there being huge queues.

All in all a great result for British democracy lol.

Atrus
Board Admin
Posts: 293
Re: UK Election Results
Posted: May 8, 2010, 19:30:42
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Who do you think will be first to approach the Queen. If I'm not mistaken doesn't one or a group of the three now have to submit a coalition to the Queen for approval? Somehow, I don't think Brown is going to keep the PM position, that SNAFU with the open mic was most likely the final nail in his political coffin.

Good stuff on the newz though, nice to see some other Democracy suffering from growing pains, the press feeding frenzy over the debates - it's all over now, once you folks had the debates there's no turning back.

In the end, it's all about the people and the empire on which the sun never sets. I have a feeling everything will be just fine.

AndyBe
Member
Posts: 235
Re: UK Election Results
Posted: May 8, 2010, 21:50:02
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tbh Gorden Brown HAS to see the Queen, before he steps down as PM he has to annouce the new PM to the Queen.

TBH i think David Cameron, will become PM,

you may not agree but he is currently the best for the country because of his policies..

cpnichol
Board Admin
Posts: 5684
Re: UK Election Results
Posted: May 12, 2010, 15:17:56
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We have a new PM, David "call me Dave" Cameron.

The Conservatives reached an agreement with the Liberals to form a coalition government. Gordon Brown has resigned as leader of Labour.

I suppose it was the only way a coalition was going to be made, returning an already unpopular and unelected Gordon Brown would have been hugely problematic for the Liberals, even if they are closer politically. So we now have the rather odd thing where the Conservatives and Liberals will be supporting policies that no one who voted for them thought they would be. Like the Liberals were against replacing our Tridant nuclear weapons system, now they will be supporting it. And the conservatives will now be supporting having a referendum on proportional representation, which isn't something their voters will have expected.

Easy to see why the Liberals want electoral reform:

Conservatives 306 seats, 10.5 million votes.
Labour 258 seats, 8.5 million votes.
Liberal Democrats 57 seats, 6.5 million votes.

So on the one hand 17 million votes are represented, just not quite how they expected.

Personally I can't stand David Cameron or his party, he's like all the things everyone disliked about Tony Blair but right wing. He's been popularist and opportunistic, so whenever there is a problem he says he will fix it. That's normal, but when you are the party of low tax and small government saying you will spend more everytime something is in the headlines while saying you will spend and tax less just seems like a lie. Also, he seems to have taken a dislike to me.
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