UK General Election 2010

So there's gotta be a few UK users on here, who's voted? Who is shit scared of going to sleep and waking up to a Tory government?

i voted for the 1st time in my life! found it pretty scary - like an exam you don't think you've revised enough for! think is everything's so close each vote does actually matter!

I had both today an exam and voting. I ended up going lib dem locally one of the weaker candidates but I prefer their policies. That said its probably a wasted vote my seat has been Tory since 1974 when it was created. The sooner we get electoral reform and proportional representation the better.

I havent voted but also do not want conservative to get in.

I didn't vote, although I've been bought up as a conservative, all where I live is conservative, I guess I wouldn't mind but I really don't know enough about the policies so didn't vote. I'd just be voting a name which I didn't want to do.

I voted Lib Dems. Our area has been a Labour seat since 1945 though, so I can't see any change happening around here.

It'll be a sad, sad day if we wake up tomorrow to a Tory government.

Conservatives seem just short in the exit polls.

Although how likely it is they'll form a coalition with another party is yet to be seen.

I voted. Really don't want to go to bed and wake up with David Cameron in charge of the country. Have you seen the queues of people still trying to vote after the doors shut at 10pm? How long do people need its 7am-10pm.

What would the American equivalent of the Tory party be?

They're mostly right-wing in their policies, so Republican I guess?

isthisreal wrote:

They're mostly right-wing in their policies, so Republican I guess?

I think the Republicans are well to the right of the Conservatives in the UK, while the Liberal Democrats are to the left of the US Democrats, with Labour being a weird mix.

What the UK really needs is electoral reform (at the moment Labour has about 29% of votes compared to the Liberal Democrats' 23%, which gives Labour about five times as many seats).

On a positive note, the Green Party has its first Member of Parliament, which is a great achievement in a first past the post system.

Hung Parliament it is. The next few hours are crucial. I really dont know whats going to happen. All it has done is highlight the need for electoral reform.

Hey, I guess a hung parliament is better than a Tory parliament...at least I hope so!

Seems like a coalition between Tories and Lib Dems is on the cards.

Since I know nothing about politics, why are the tories so hated and yet most of the country want them in power? (or at least got most votes)?

Inner city seems to be all labour/Lib dem and the country conservative, I know I'm being dumb but as I say...don't know anything about politics and haven't really taken much in about this election.

I don't know much about politics either, but from what I can gather, and the snippits my dad tells me, the Tories are historically a party that cater to the rich, leaving a lot of working-class/middle-class citizens alienated.

However, a large percentage of the country voted Conservatives because a vast majority of newspapers publications are owned by Tories such as Rupert Murdoch, who can essentially use all those publications to spout anti-Labour/LibDems headlines and promote the Conservatives. A great example is The Suns March 6th headline - something like 'our last chance for change' with a huge picture of David Cameron. As far as I'm aware, the only major newspapers which arn't backing Tories are The Independent, The Guardian and one other which is pro-Labour...forgot the name, hah. Therefore, a ton of people are convinced to vote Tories because of this newspaper spin.

As my English teacher put it earlier, 'Tory voters are either rich, or sheep, and our country is full of sheep.' This is why I use the BBC and The Independent to get my news - less spin and political point-scoring, more focus on reporting the facts.

While Labour tends to be for big government, the Tories tend to be for small government. This means that Labour has always been stronger on the welfare state, and higher taxes, unlike the Tories. Both Labour and the Tories, however, are nowadays thick as thieves with big business (or the military-industrial complex, if you wish). The Tories still hold that people should be able to keep more of their own money (hence they are seen as favouring the rich) and to use that money as they see fit. Labour's big state has turned more and more into the so-called 'nanny-state' (incl. surveillance and social engineering). Labour's idea of a compulsory identity card (with 50 registerable facts, on pain of a huge fine) is oppossed by both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats, who are suddenly bigger on civil liberties than Labour, who actually introduced the Human Rights Act, which was oppossed by the Tories. The point of all this is that something which is very complex is too often simplified beyond recognition.

In any case, all three main parties support a capitalist world economy, as a result of which worldwide 25,000 children a day will continue to die needlessly from hunger, preventable diseases, and war.

Sounds similar to whats been happening in the US. (Though the sane party here is the libertarians, who have the pro-civil liberties of the Democrats with the pro-economic liberties of the Republicans. Too bad they are like, only a couple percent of the voters.). Republicans are supposed to be small government as well, but the party leaders have totally lost base with reality over the past few years. So nice to know the UK isn't any better off when it comes to the clusterfuck that is politics =P

Well, now that the UK has a new Prime Minister, I checked out what's on David Cameron's iPod. This is from a 2006 BBC article:

"Because I'm 39, there's The Smiths, Radiohead, Pulp, Blur - all that quite gloomy music. I'm a big Bob Dylan fan - there's a lot of Bob Dylan but I'm not a Tom Waits fan. There's a lot of reggae on it. The Killers album I think is fantastic - that is my like favourite album at the moment." He also name checked Radiohead and the Ramones.

Welcome to the dark ages.

I totally agree though the blurring between the main parties.

I feel though that this whole election turned out to be one big fucking farce. The electorate decide to turn out and it was concluded that no one trusted the main parties enough to hold power. Then the looser of the 3 main parties gets to decide who gets to be the PM not us. Not exactly democratic.

To make things worse it seems Clegg has sold his parties ideals down the river with this coalition. The Tories have got their way in most cases while the Lib dems have just rolled over and allowed it. Admittedly there have been a few good compromises things like the levy on banking transactions AKA the Tobin Tax that is being considered. Hell we are not even getting a referendum on PR which was supposed to be a key issue for the lib dems instead we are only getting the alternative vote system. Cheers Cleggers.

My understanding is that if Clegg didn't form a collation, there would've been a new election in a few months and the Cameron would've probably cleaned up a majority. Because Lib Dems + Labour wasn't big enough for a majority, Clegg didn't have much bargaining power.

I'm surprised you guys even have a viable third party and things haven't dengenerated into a two party system as people realize 'voting labour and winning is better than lib dem and losing'

kieran wrote:

Welcome to the dark ages.

I feel though that this whole election turned out to be one big fucking farce. The electorate decide to turn out and it was concluded that no one trusted the main parties enough to hold power.

I'm sorry, Kieran, but I'm not with you on this. For one thing, the new government will reverse Labour's unprecedented assault on civil liberties (talk about dark ages). By the end, I found New Labour as nauseating as Thatcherism.

As for the electorate, turnout was 65%. That is, 35% of the electorate could not even be bothered to decide or conclude anything.

Here is an extract from the Conservative-Libearl Democrat coalition agreement (and one I'm quite happy with):

10. Civil liberties
The parties agree to implement a full programme of measures to reverse the substantial erosion of civil liberties under the Labour Government and roll back state intrusion. This will include:
- A Freedom or Great Repeal Bill.
- The scrapping of ID card scheme, the National Identity register, the next generation of biometric passports and the Contact Point Database.
- Outlawing the finger-printing of children at school without parental permission.
- The extension of the scope of the Freedom of Information Act to provide greater transparency.
- Adopting the protections of the Scottish model for the DNA database.
- The protection of historic freedoms through the defence of trial by jury.
- The restoration of rights to non-violent protest.
- The review of libel laws to protect freedom of speech.
- Safeguards against the misuse of anti-terrorism legislation.
- Further regulation of CCTV.
- Ending of storage of internet and email records without good reason.
- A new mechanism to prevent the proliferation of unnecessary new criminal offences.

steady now steady now wrote:

kieran wrote:

Welcome to the dark ages.

I feel though that this whole election turned out to be one big fucking farce. The electorate decide to turn out and it was concluded that no one trusted the main parties enough to hold power.

I'm sorry, Kieran, but I'm not with you on this. For one thing, the new government will reverse Labour's unprecedented assault on civil liberties (talk about dark ages). By the end, I found New Labour as nauseating as Thatcherism.

As for the electorate, turnout was 65%. That is, 35% of the electorate could not even be bothered to decide or conclude anything.

Here is an extract from the Conservative-Libearl Democrat coalition agreement (and one I'm quite happy with):

10. Civil liberties
The parties agree to implement a full programme of measures to reverse the substantial erosion of civil liberties under the Labour Government and roll back state intrusion. This will include:
- A Freedom or Great Repeal Bill.
- The scrapping of ID card scheme, the National Identity register, the next generation of biometric passports and the Contact Point Database.
- Outlawing the finger-printing of children at school without parental permission.
- The extension of the scope of the Freedom of Information Act to provide greater transparency.
- Adopting the protections of the Scottish model for the DNA database.
- The protection of historic freedoms through the defence of trial by jury.
- The restoration of rights to non-violent protest.
- The review of libel laws to protect freedom of speech.
- Safeguards against the misuse of anti-terrorism legislation.
- Further regulation of CCTV.
- Ending of storage of internet and email records without good reason.
- A new mechanism to prevent the proliferation of unnecessary new criminal offences.

EDIT: Sorry had to make an effort few mistakes opps.

Like I already said good will come of this coalition its not all doom and gloom I already mentioned one point about the banking levy you mentioned anther.

I am also in no way supporting Labour who I have disagreed with on many points the most recent being the somewhat draconian digital economy bill that was rushed through the wash up without proper consolation. But 65% is the highest turn out we have had since Blair got elected in 1997. Also its worth noting that this election has completly bucked a previous trend where the British electorate act in a culture of deference whereby they wont challenge the mainstream parties by electing newer untried parties. Maybe I was being a bit hasty but what I feel this really highlights is the need for electoral reform which we are partly getting but is still not enough.

Thats not to say PR is without its problems for example the BNP would have won seats this election for example there are certainly no easy solutions.