Shame to see Danny Alexander lose his seat - he's quite likeable for a ginger tosser.
Also a bit of a shame to see Clegg suffer so much. He did the right thing last time around and helped stabilise and begin to fix a dangerously wrecked economy - he didn't deserve such cruel and unusual punishment.
Not at all surprising to see that there's a large shy Tory vote, that would-be UKIP voters would protect the Conservatives in marginals and that the country (England, at least) is decidedly a centre-right one. I'll stop short of using the phrase "I told you so" but.......
As did everyone. Well, everyone except this guy (probably Lord Ashcroft!).You picked a minority labour result!
ThisWhat is exactly Intelligence...
This election was lost back in September. Today, the Scots voted with the referenda in mind. Miliband told them, if you vote SNP you end up with Tories, they didn't listen. Today the SNP are in raptures over their bright and shiny extra 50 members, but the reality is they are just as irrelevant as when they had 6. Labour were stupid to wade into the pro union push, as they had to much political skin at risk (over 40 seats) the Tories had 1. Apart from losing so many seats in Scotland, it made it too easy for Murdoch to wedge Labour with that hysterical scare campaign about the non existent Labour-SNP coalition. It was a gift to the Tories. What I cannot understand, is that the liberals lost support due to the sell out of their beliefs from 2010, so what do the majority of their supporters do...vote Tory. Unbelievable. A victory for fear over hope and that is the sad thing.
The only consolation for Labour is that this might not be a bad election to lose. Under the expertise of the Tories, growth is crawling along. The EU vote has to be dealt with, potentially another Scottish vote and let's not forget, NO increases in tax, but increased NHS spending and Cameron has said he will be going, so expect some leadership tension as a result.
As did everyone. Well, everyone except this guy (probably Lord Ashcroft!).
I did also predict the others and they're all very true.
I think it was Nick Robinson who said last night that many of those seats were Conservative before the Lib Dems took them. Now that the Conservatives have come back to the centre ground and Labour have vacated it to the left, there's no need for the Lib Dems.This election was lost back in September. Today, the Scots voted with the referenda in mind. Miliband told them, if you vote SNP you end up with Tories, they didn't listen. Today the SNP are in raptures over their bright and shiny extra 50 members, but the reality is they are just as irrelevant as when they had 6. Labour were stupid to wade into the pro union push, as they had to much political skin at risk (over 40 seats) the Tories had 1. Apart from losing so many seats in Scotland, it made it too easy for Murdoch to wedge Labour with that hysterical scare campaign about the non existent Labour-SNP coalition. It was a gift to the Tories. What I cannot understand, is that the liberals lost support due to the sell out of their beliefs from 2010, so what do the majority of their supporters do...vote Tory. Unbelievable. A victory for fear over hope and that is the sad thing.
The only consolation for Labour is that this might not be a bad election to lose. Under the expertise of the Tories, growth is crawling along. The EU vote has to be dealt with, potentially another Scottish vote and let's not forget, NO increases in tax, but increased NHS spending and Cameron has said he will be going, so expect some leadership tension as a result.
That there's a strong "shy Tory" vote, that the country is firmly centre-right in its beliefs, that would-be UKIP voters would vote tactically to keep Labour out and that SNP voters wouldn't afford Labour the same generosity.What others?
Even if every SNP vote had gone to Labour, they would still have fallen way short.
Tories won because Labour elected Miliband as leader and Balls as shadow chancellor. They were unelectable.
The UKIP vote actually held up pretty well. I think is was Lib Dems voting Tory which swung it, plus I think more right wingers turned out.That there's a strong "shy Tory" vote, that the country is firmly centre-right in its beliefs, that would-be UKIP voters would vote tactically to keep Labour out and that SNP voters wouldn't afford Labour the same generosity.
That tactic only started towards the end of the campaign and didn't result in any visible swing (we have to assume that all the polls were equally wrong by a roughly equal amount). It seems to me that the battle was always won, but the pollsters made the mistake of valuing online polls far too highly:You didn't read the post...as usual! it was a combination of the loss of seats in Scotland and the scare campaign against the so called Labour-SNP coalition, which cost labour seats in England.
In the Con/Lab marginals I saw in the early hours (not looked since) the UKIP vote was lower than in any others.The UKIP vote actually held up pretty well. I think is was Lib Dems voting Tory which swung it, plus I think more right wingers turned out.