My condolences to any Labour supporters posting here tonight.

[Ken Burch]

You deserved a better campaign from your party, and a better program to fight it on. I know you must all be massively depressed at this hour.

It wasn't your fault...it was all in the failings of your leaders, as it always is in any lost election.

Tomorrow, the struggle goes on. Don't give up.

[marym625]

2. Just realized what group this is

My condolences. That really sucks.

[MattP]

3. exit polls dead on again

Its funny the only time exit polls dont seem to work is when our electronic voting gets involved

[Dawson Leery]

4. 1992 2.0

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/08/the-2015-election-has-unmistakeable-echoes-of-1992

[T_i_B]

5. Trouble is....

Last edited Fri May 8, 2015, 02:21 AM - Edit history (1)

....I've been angry with Labour since 2002 at least, and in that time the party has drifted along complacently. And now Labour is facing pressure on all sides, with a lacklustre, uninspiring platform, trying to appeal to voters on the basis that they are marginally less repellent then the Conservatives.

[pa28]

6. Watching the returns today I remembered this short video of Ed campaigning.

You can begin to understand why Scotland deserted Labour as bloc. Also why apathy and cynicism won the day.

http://order-order.com/2015/02/19/awkward-ed-meets-a-voter/

Ed looks like he'd rather be getting a root canal than speaking with or listening to this voter.

[LeftishBrit]

7. What a hopeless, horrible mess

A lot of this is due to the SNP doing so well in Scotland, and to the LD vote in England being apparently replaced by UKIP, to the extent that they harmed Labour at least as much as the Tories.

The Labour campaign was not inspiring, but I think one of the main issues is that the right-wing press were successful in the fear campaigns. As they so often are. Another 1992 when 'it was the Sun (and the Hate--Mail and even the Times and Torygraph) wot won it'. Ed Miliband's big mistake was IMO ruling out a deal with the SNP so explicitly; this was doubtless him running scared from the right-wing hate-press, but it didn't stop them, and it made the Labour losses in Scotland still worse.

I am in despair really, and see no way forward. If I were younger and healthier and more mobile, I'd be considering emigration; though apart from all other considerations, most other countries seem to have even worse governments at the moment!

I mostly got the results on the Internet rather than on TV as I would NOT have been able to stand a night of watching Michael Gove strutting around gloating.

[Jim Lane]

8. What struck me was that Labour slightly *increased* its share of the popular vote.

It still translated into a Parliamentary rout and Cameron continuing in office, in fact with a Conservative majority and no need for coalition.

I'm sure Labour will bounce back, but is there any future for the Lib Dems?

[LeftishBrit]

9. The Conservative popular vote is the same as in 2010 and the same as in....

1945.

That year was one of the worst Tory debacles ever, yet their 36% of the vote was no better than the current vote. The difference is that the opposition was divided: last time mainly with the LibDems; now with the SNP (and unfortunately UKIP).

[Jim Lane]

11. Thanks, I meant to mention that.

Both major parties registered tiny popular-vote gains: 1.4 percentage points for Labour and 0.8 percentage points for the Conservatives. The big gainers, as you say, were UKIP, up by 9.5 percentage points, and the SNP, up by 4.7 percentage points (obviously a much higher percentage gain in the seats they actually contested as opposed to nationwide).

UKIP polled in the same ballpark as did George Wallace in the 1968 Presidential election -- not the only similarity between the two.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. because they lost their dominant position in Scotland

In 2010, they had 42.0% of the vote there, and 41 out of 59 seats. Now, it's 24.3%, and 1 seat. It is pretty unusual to do that badly with about a quarter of the vote, even in a first past the post system.

In England and Wales , they went from about 28.6% of the vote and 217 out of 573 seats to about 31.9% of the vote and 231 seats, which looks more proportionate.