Thursday, May 6, 2010

UK Election

8.20pm GMT
Still not certain who will form the government. BUT...in the best news of the election, George Galloway lost his seat!

6.45am GMT
With 74 more results to come, it's Tories 274 - Labour 225 - Lib Dem 47 - Other 27. Heaven only knows what kind of government these results will produce.

4.30am GMT
Tories continue to gain seats from Labour and are leading, but it doesn't look like enough right now to form a majority government.

2.50am GMT
Tories have gained 16 seats, 15 from Labour and 1 from the Lib Dems.

1.10am GMT
Labour hold on to 3 more "safe" seats but Sky News is reporting an(unofficial) win for the Tories in the London riding of Battersea. Battersea is a strategically important seat for a Tory win and a previous Labour seat.

There is much anger at so many people being left outside waiting when the polls closed at 10pm.


10.55pm GMT
The first result is in for Sunderland South a Labour stronghold that remains Labour. This is the riding that traditionally has the first result.

Some polls will not even start counting until 9am GMT and the postal vote count will take longer. But I'm sure there will be a pretty good indication of the results before I go to bed tonight. So, I will be updating the results during this evening.

From the London Times:

"Hundreds of people were unable to vote at polling stations today as they were still queuing when the ballot boxes closed at 10pm.

"Voters in Hackney, east London, were turned away from a polling station in Triangle Road after some had been forced to queue for more than an hour and a half, they said.

"And police were called to a polling station in Manwood Road, Lewisham, south London, where around 300 people had yet to vote by 10pm, Scotland Yard said.

"There were reports of similar situations in other parts of the country."

15 comments:

  1. At least Clegg is no longer a threat.

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  2. Early reactions rounded up by the Financial Times: link.

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  3. Scotland voted Plaid Cymru, Labor, and Scottish National.

    Ireland voted Sinn Fein, Labor, and British National.

    England (the breadbasket) voted mostly Conservative.

    The options? A hung parliament, or a nightmare coalition. Groan...if the Conservatives enter into a coalition with Liberal Dems, that will give Clegg a hammer. :(

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  4. "At least Clegg is no longer a threat.""

    Unfortunately that's not true. He will hold the balance of power whichever party forms the Government.

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  5. Yeah, Fay - I wrote that before hearing further reports.

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  6. I'm so relieved & actually thrilled with result. Nick Clegg grew up damn fast, squashed the idiots in his party, conceded his entire manifesto (that saw him punished in the result) and retained the best bits - which any Conservative will tell you should have been in the Tory mainfesto they were so conservative. And we avoided a terrifying progressive leftwing coalition that would have seen off conservatism forever. We also have a fully pro Israel neocon Foreign office! Holy cow, I think I can start breathing. A coalition is exactly what we needed to face up to the worst crisis this country has faced since WW2 - the last time we had a Conservative Liberal coalition - with a Conservative Liberal at the helm - Winston Churchill.

    Nu Labour is dead. The country is reborn. Tears of complete joy. If you want me to run a post on the significance of this election for this country and our relationship with world - would happily email :)

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  7. Alison, we'd love a post! You can email it to me, or else I'd be delighted to add you as a contributor. :)

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  8. "to add you as a contributor"

    Fabulous idea.

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  9. Alison - thank you for saving me a few hours of reading and analysis on the UK election.

    Bottom line - if you're happy, I'm happy!

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  10. Alison, I too would be extremely happy to have you as a regular contributor, here.

    Perhaps, if nothing else, to balance out my foolishness.

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  11. "We also have a fully pro Israel neocon Foreign office!"

    Can the US have one, too? Pretty please?

    And since Fay mentioned it before and others are joining in, yes -- please be a contributot, Allison. As a matter of fact, you have no choise. We have deemed it so!

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  12. I mean that you can be a contributor. A contributot send automated spam.

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  13. Alison, I echo everyone else's sentiments and am very interested in your take on the election.

    img:"http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/phasewest/Emoticons/anmmail01.gif"

    Check your email!

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  14. Wow - ok guys, thanks very much - sounds good!

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