Be Excellent To Each Other

None of this makes any sense.

In its own way its fucking brilliant. Next election, dull? Right...

Can't really expect the next election to do anything more than lurch further rightwards.

Or end in riots.

All just a little bit of history repeating.

One thing is for certain, this has totally destroyed any hope of electoral reform for the foreseeable future.

SNP sweeps Scotland; Cameron still PM (just). Obvious solution is immediate federalism. That would be an outcome I would be happy with as we'd finally achieved the Liberals' old rallying cry of 'Home Rule All Round'.

Assuming this plays out as projected, Labour have no choice but to distinguish themselves and go back left (and sensibly so).

In theory, UKIP shouldn't exist at the next election - the referendum done. Y'know, just like happened with the SNP. However I think they'll collapse post referendum, either way.

Saddened that this could be the death of the LibDems, the only party I've ever voted for in spirit rather than defence

Has Miliband been too cautious? When he made that speech about the deaths of migrants, I really felt that this was the kind of moral purpose and leadership people would respond too, shame he never made that kind of speech at any point before.

Marr talking about Cameron as the last Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. As an instinctive Unionman, I really don't want it to end this way...

Sinn Fein got 1, so that's lots of expenses and no work for them.

Miliband is nothing, Labour is nothing. They stand for no-one - not the 'common man', not the 'working man', not even explicitly 'business' if they wanted to swing the whole way, arguably haven't since 1993. But between 1992 and 2005 they 'weren't the tories'. It was their only fundamental policy.

It is, always was, and always likely to be unlikely that I would ever vote labour, its in my blood (for various reasons) from a week after birth. But at least they provide a contrast. I accept that I won't have my government of choice from time to time, and I may be diametrically opposed to the incumbents at any given moment in time, but I want, crave imagination and variation in policy and approach to influence the others. Labour haven't given that since they went for the film star rather than the idealist.

Which is why I've never figured out the fervent red/blue anger and hatred in these parts since time immemorial.

Not with a bang...

Yes. I think Labour have had a huge open goal over the last 5 years, which they just kept on not even going for. The public doesn't know how to resolve the economic crisis, that's clear, but they certainly want a clear choice. The SNP offer that, the Greens offer that, Labour don't. And that's been their downfall. Ish.

Fucking hell, Nuneaton being a labour target (Number 3 iirc), huge swing to the tories.

Are they suggesting that this 1992 all over again?

With hindsight, an election Labour were glad to have lost...

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That virtual cardboard cutout is freaky.

Bennet said she'd stay on for her two year term.

In Scotland and in England...

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I'm going to bed now. I do actually have things to do tomorrow due to poor scheduling.

I'm expecting to wake to a fractional Tory majority. I don't know how to comprehend that.

Final thought on 92, labour were glad to lose that on the basis of already baked in conservative disintegration after 13 years in power and the shock emu exit (which was a political embarrassment but also economic gain) that they could play well. John smith dying really rallied their cause but he'd have won them 97 anyway.

Unless labour seriously sort their shit out this could be more like 79 in the longer term

Fair play: I think Cavey will be pretty much bang-on in his prediction.

I am running out of booze.
I have one bottle of crap beer left, some homebrew from last year, and a bottle of fizz. I suppose I could always drink the whiskey in my hip flask that I take on hikes.

Barely even that, honestly. Labour's lurch to a centrist platform under Blair meant it successfully courted undecided voters – but at the cost of taking its historical base for granted. Eventually that wears thin, and perhaps that's what happened. The modern Labour party is hopelessly bloodless, and I have no idea what it's supposed to stand for. There is nothing energising there. We have no progressive voices in English or Welsh politics.

The Lib Dems are dead. Clegg has destroyed the party as a political force. At this point, I don't even know if he'd face a leadership election – who'd want it, now?

Ukip votes everywhere will only increase pressure on Cameron for an EU referendum, which I think would be terrible for the economy. I am concerned about this.

EU referendum I think would be won by people's natural conservatism: the uncertainty of leaving will swing waverers to the status quo camp. It just doesn't register as an issue to the majority of people.

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Yes, there should have been a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. I always sensed that people saw through the Government's argument that it 'wasn't the constitutional treaty', and that turned people away from a neutral or lightly pro-european position.

Lib Dems win a seat (hold on to one in Wales)

Snpwin in Kilmarnock

Kilmarnock ['Grrr - Uncle Stu] goes to SNP on 26% swing.
Holy cow!

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Went to the loo, came back to see the Lib Dems with 1 seat. Where?

Somewher very Welsh in Wales

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Christ! Paisley!

The lib dems are dead, I agree, but I don't agree that clegg destroyed them. They were nothing, until clegg got them a seat at the table, well above their rightful place. They've just fallen back to the level they were always at, the last 5 years were a blip.


Do we know how many people postal vote, as they won't be counted in the exit poll. I'm assuming those tend to be Tory.

Dougy Alexander out. Beaten by a 20 year old. Ouch.

(I feel old)

Snp take Paisley

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The death of Scottish Labour is more important, and more fascinating to watch, then the death of Liberal Democratic England.

Consider me told didn't realise their support was that good in the past!

57 seats in 2010. 62 in 2005. 52 in 2001. 46 in 1997. 20 in 1992. 22 in 1987. 23 in 1983 for the SDP/Liberal alliance. And so on.

And now, perhaps, 10 in 2015. And you don't think Clegg has damaged them?

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You know you're getting old when you see a line-up as the results are declared and your first thought is 'aren't the candidates looking young'.

Agree but for a wholly different implied reason.

The focus on Scotland for the election completely changed the focus of the battleground for the electorate. Instead of looking to what people in England could do with their own vote they worried about what people in Scotland may do with theirs. The labour campaign was entirely railroaded by a discussion that, at worst, would have given them a very similar outcome.

Labour fucked it. They fucked it hard. Harder than 92 in sheffield and no one ever thought that possible.

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I didn't take it personally, i'm more than happy to admit when I'm wrong
I'd always had it in my head they were a 20 seat party.

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Balls, for sure.
Has Salmond got his seat yet, that could be an interesting one.

80 votes for the Lib Dems in Castle point!

Eighty!

82% turnout in Dunbartonshire East!

Starting to flag now...