Ugh. Listening to UK radio. An infamous Lib-Dem who championed progressive science lost his seat.

[onehandle]

I hope Labour and the Lib-Dems do form a coalition against the Conservatives.

They keep talking about how no matter how mad people are at Labour, they still hate Conservatives more for the Thatcher years and beyond.

Also, they are talking about how different Conservatives are here. Apparently over there, the Conservatives are not ruled by religion, just money.

Oh, man. Now they are talking about our fixation on guns. They think we are out of our gourds.

Wonderful. They think that the teabaggers may be 'our core.' So much for the moment of sanity that Obama's election painted us with.

Anyway... Apparently the Conservatives failed to take down many of their high priority targets. Good.

The youth failed to leave the pubs and vote for Clegg. Figures.

[WeDidIt]

1. It's not looking good right now

Out of 412 constituencies reporting, 205 are conservative.

[WeDidIt]

2. Now 209 out of 419

That's two seats shy of a majority of what's reported so far.

I think there are going to be challenges to dozens of seats, though.

[PM Martin]

3. 326 is a majority.

ITV projects:
Con - 300
Lab - 256
Lib - 65

[WeDidIt]

4. I think the Tories will get closer than being 26 shy of a majority

which may give them enough to form a coalition and steal it.

The irregularities are going to be a big sore point in this election.

[PM Martin]

6. One must wonder about those irregularities.

Strange how they suddenly showed up.
The 92' election was similar to this one and these 'irregularities' were no where to be found.

[nemo137]

14. That puts a Lib-Lab coalition just 5 seats short of 326

Is there any actual hope of that, and do SNP, Plaid Cymru, SDLP, etc usually caucus with Labor?

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. SDLP normally does (they have 3 MPs)

and the 1 (new) Alliance MP from Northern Ireland will tend towards Lib Dems or Labour too. Plaid Cymru (3 MPs) and Labour are in a coalition in the Welsh Assmebly right now, so there's a chance they'd work with Labour (Plaid are generally left - they were anti-Iraq war, for instance). SNP (6 MPs) are generally left too, but are not on quite such good terms with Labour at the moment - the SNP are the minority government in Scotland, with just one more MSP than Labour. And there's 1 Green MP now, who is likely to support Labour rather than the Tories (and would certainly be pro-proportional representation, as the Lib Dems are).

[nemo137]

17. Thank you!

That was very informative :hi:

[WeDidIt]

5. Tories now have 220 out of 440 seats reporting

326 for a majority.

Looks like the UK will have a Tory parliament.

[WeDidIt]

7. Tories now have 227 out of 459, net pickup of 61 seats. n/t

[Ebadlun]

8. Nobody knows what's going on

Results are all over the place.

There is little enthusiasm for the Tories, and they are ahead but not winning (yet). The Clegg effect has evaporated - the Liberals are not doing much better than they did in 2005, remarkable when you consider they were leading the Tories in a few polls a couple of weeks ago.

[Behind the Aegis]

9. Who is the "infamous Lib-Dem who championed progressive science"?

Are you talking about Clegg? He lost his seat? I just checked the most recent polls and that is one area which hasn't been "decided." There is nothing to indicate he has lost his seat at all.

[onehandle]

10. I missed the name. Not Clegg. They mentioned that a dirty campaign brought him down. nt

[Ebadlun]

11. Lembit Opik?

I guess - one of his pet projects was asteroid research. Also known for dating minor celebrities (Welsh weather girls and Romanian pop stars).

Colourful chap, often seen on panel game shows.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. No, Evan Harris, for Oxford West

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT Evan Harris this morning lost his seat in Oxford West and Abingdon to Conservative Nicola Blackwood.

The result was declared just after 4am and Dr Harris ended up the wrong side of a 176-vote result.
...
The election battle in Oxford West and Abingdon provoked the most bitter and personal attacks, which fuelled claims of slurs and dirty tricks.

The campaign saw Dr Evan Harris come in for a series of personal attacks because of his views on abortion and euthanasia.

He was the subject of an angry leaflet campaign branding him “Dr Death”.

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/8152627.ELECTION__Conservative_topples_Lib_Dem_Harris/

Opik did lose too, but he's a bit of an eccentric, and seems to have been beaten by a Tory who had good local support (he had been the Tory representative for that area in the Welsh assembly). But Harris is a real lose to parliament, as well as the Lib Dems. Simply, he was the best representative of science there was in the Commons.

[LeftishBrit]

19. I think this may refer to Evan Harris,

He was my MP, and I'm pretty upset. He was a LibDem, but to the left of most Labourites and was pro-science, pro-education, one of the strongest champions of the NHS, anti-war, anti-fundie, and a very good local MP. He lost to a Tory by 176 votes.

At least the Tories haven't got an overall majority, and the BNP got 14% of the vote in a seat that they thought they might win. So it's bad here but not the worst I suppose.

Clegg was re-elected in his seat.

[WeDidIt]

12. Tories losing ground, 241 out of 495 seats

A Liberal coalition is still possible!

[mr blur]

13. Politics isn't ruled by religion over here.

In fact, very little is. Nobody cares which fantasy figure you profess to believe in. In fact, you can get elected even if you <i>don't</i> believe in Jebus. A candidate would get scorn and derision if they came out with some of the laughable religious drivel that some US politicians profess to believe . Witness the fact that Blair waited until he was no longer PM before talking about god lest people should think he was "bonkers".

[onehandle]

18. I did not write that sentence clearly.

I was writing real time and wrote:
'Also, they are talking about how different Conservatives are here. Apparently over there, the Conservatives are not ruled by religion, just money.'

I meant:
'Also, they are talking about how different Conservatives are here in the U.S. Apparently over there in the UK, the Conservatives are not ruled by religion, just money.'

Sorry about that. Yes, they made it clear that running on religion would be seen as 'bonkers' in the UK. They think our Conservatives are bonkers (rightly so) and dangerous.

[LeftishBrit]

20. True but there were religious/ social righties gunning for Harris

A small number compared with those in the USA, but when the margin is 176 votes, it can make a difference.