UK Election Thread

[Ramo]

Exit poll:

37% Labour (down 3.3%)
33% Conservative (up 1.3%)
22% LiberalDem (up 3.7%)

Labour has a 66 seat majority (down 94).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4513605.stm

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp


Not really- they're predicting only a 37% share of the vote, which is really low for a winning party.

quick googling shows the last time Labour won a majority of more than of 60 seats with with anyone other than Tony Blair as leader was 1966.

Now their last win without Blair was 1974. It was narrower than 60 seats. They probably had more than a 37% vote, as the Lib dems werent in existence, and the old Libs didnt get many votes. Also didnt have the SNP or Plaid Cymru, IIUC.

[lord of the mark]

so what was the percentage the last time Labour won its third general election in a row?

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by our_man
Guess what I found in my postbox yesterday.

I couldn't believe it: despite being a citizen of the Republic of Ireland, I was entitled to vote in the British general election.

After asking around some more, I was told that any citizen of the Commonwealth (and the RoI) living in the UK are entitled to vote in the general election. Some sort of weird colonial hangover - I guess you guys still can't get over the fact we've been an independent nation since 1922.

Talk about liberal voting rights! I'm now in the weird situation where I'll have voted in a British general election before I've voted in the Irish one.

That's right...does this work the other way around?

[Zulu Elephant]

Its not a bad majority by historical standards. Its just that Blair would find it difficult to get his market-led public service reforms past the left-wingers who will now make up a larger percentage of his majority.

[Zulu Elephant]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
so what was the percentage the last time Labour won its third general election in a row?

Labour have NEVER in their whole history won three elections in a row

[Krill]

One MP down, god knows how many left...Bloody Labour, but it was to be expected.

[Zulu Elephant]

First result just in:

Sunderland South:

Mullin (Lab) 17982
Oliver (Con) 6923
Kane (LD) 4492

This suggests an even bigger swing against Labour than the BBCs exit poll.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Zulu Elephant


Labour have NEVER in their whole history won three elections in a row

and apparently the ONLY times in history that Labour has won a majority of more than 60 seats were 1966, and 1945 (the post war turning out of Churchill)

[Ramo]

So, what are the chances of a coup within Labour (i.e., by Gordon Brown) if their majority is relatively small?

[Lancer]

I'm watching this on C-SPAN2. What party took over for the Tories and which took over for Whigs? Labor is whig, right?

[Krill]

Whig = Liberals
Tories= Conservatives

[Zulu Elephant]

Originally posted by Ramo
So, what are the chances of a coup within Labour (i.e., by Gordon Brown) if their majority is relatively small?

Very little. In UK politics, the guy holding the knife NEVER becomes Prime Minister. You just have to wait your turn

Brown will wait, because if he doesnt, he'll go the way of Heseltine.

[Lancer]

Thanks Krill...So Labor is workers?

[Ramo]

Then, Liberals merged with the Social Democrats (right-wing break-off of Labour) in the 80's to create the Lib Dems.