Labor government ends, no clear majorities

[frigidmagi]

BBC

Note: I changed the title of the story.

David Cameron will fall 19 seats short of a Commons majority, according to a joint BBC/Sky/ITV exit poll.

The Conservatives would have 307 MPs, up 97 on 2005, Labour would have 255, down 94, and the Lib Dems 59, down 3. Nationalists and others would have 29.

That means Labour and the Lib Dems together could not have a majority.

There are reports of long queues of people still waiting to vote in some parts of the country after the most closely fought election in decades.

Polls closed across the country at 2200 BST but in Sutton Coldfield a BBC reporter says there are plans to lock voters inside the Mere Green Polling Station because the queues are currently so long. There are also reports of long queues in Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle and other cities.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has been to a polling station in his Sheffield Hallam constituency, where many are queuing outside, to offer his apologies to voters.

NOP and Mori surveyed 17,607 voters at 130 polling stations across the UK for the BBC/ ITV/Sky exit poll.

Prime minister

All exit polls have a small margin of error which could be significant in a tight election such as this one, in which the three main Westminster parties have been so close in the opinion polls.

There could also be different voting patterns around the country.


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Nevertheless, Conservative leader David Cameron might find that winning one or two seats in Northern Ireland and forming a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party might be enough to give him a majority, making him Britain's next prime minister.

The exit poll anticipates that the Labour Party has been more successful at holding on to its vote in seats in Scotland and Wales in seats where there is a large ethnic minority population and where there is an incumbent Labour MP standing again.

The poll also anticipates the Lib Dems will perform better in England than in either Scotland or Wales, but a fall in number of MPs would still come as a blow to Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, who has been neck-and-neck in the polls with the other two main parties for much of the campaign.

It remains to be seen whether the poll proves to be accurate in its estimate of the Lib Dem performance - deputy leader Vince Cable told BBC News his party expected to have gained a lot from postal votes, as they were ahead in some polls when those votes were cast.

Local elections

The vast majority of constituencies will conduct their counts overnight, with about 20 not due to begin the process until after 0900 GMT on Friday.

Most seats will declare in the early hours of Friday, but a handful of key marginals are expected to declare shortly after midnight, which could give an early indication of how the national result is going.

More than 44 million people are registered to vote in 649 Parliamentary constituencies. Elections are also under way for 164 English councils.

Polling in one constituency - Thirsk and Malton - has been delayed until 27 May because of the death of one of the candidates during the campaign. The exit poll assumes the Conservatives will win here.

Among the council elections taking place, voters will choose representatives in 32 London boroughs, 36 metropolitan authorities and 20 unitary authorities.

In these elections, a total of 15,785 candidates are contesting 4,222 seats.

Plane crash

Voting will also take place to choose mayors in Hackney, Newham, Lewisham and Watford.

In a separate development, Nigel Farage, a UK Independence Party Euro-MP, said he was "lucky to be alive", after being involved in a light plane crash near Brackley, Northamptonshire.

He is standing in the general election in Buckingham. He suffered non-life-threatening injuries when the aircraft came down just after 0800 BST.

He was initially taken to hospital in Banbury, Oxfordshire, before being moved to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. The pilot is currently being treated at University Hospital in Coventry.

Mr Farage's agent, Chris Adams, told the BBC he had to be moved for more checks.

"I believe it's just precautionary, obviously, for chest pains and we've just got to do all the tests... and the required X-rays, and hopefully he'll be on the mend. The pilot, unfortunately, is in a more severe condition," he said.

A spokeswoman for the John Radcliffe Hospital said Mr Farage would be kept in overnight and "will be with us for a few days".

The crash is being investigated by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch and Northamptonshire Police. The aircraft was towing a banner when it crashed shortly after take-off.

Seems the Clegg effect just wasn't good enough. The Labor government had lasted from 1997 to this election, mostly under the leadership of Tony Blair. Blair was Prime Minister for 10 years, the longest serving PM for his party.

Would any of our British posters like to say anything?

[Cynical Cat]

I'm not British but a few comments:

1) Apparently Brown did fairly well in a leadership debate just before the election, which helped pull Labour out of the gutter.

2) Labour, and to a lesser extent the Conservatives, have the advantage of having a much more concentrated vote than the Liberals meaning that a lower percentage of the popular vote translates into more seats.

3) Expect another election within the next couple of years (or sooner). This doesn't look like a stable configuration of parties and since that's what's been happening in Canada for the last couple of years, let me be the first to welcome our British friends to the fucked up party.

[The Minx]

I'm actually surprised that the Lib Dems didn't do better after all that hype. I guess it proves once again that one shouldn't trust pundits.

1) Apparently Brown did fairly well in a leadership debate just before the election, which helped pull Labour out of the gutter.

It's so sad how a handful of televised debates can influence the political stage for years down the line. That's not unique to Britain, though.

[Cynical Cat]

I'm actually surprised that the Lib Dems didn't do better after all that hype. I guess it proves once again that one shouldn't trust pundits.

1) Apparently Brown did fairly well in a leadership debate just before the election, which helped pull Labour out of the gutter.

It's so sad how a handful of televised debates can influence the political stage for years down the line. That's not unique to Britain, though.

I didn't see the debates, but if Brown actually did better on the issues he deserved the points he got from it.

[frigidmagi]

From what I hear, the Liberal Dems came out not against nuclear weapons (which I honestly don't know how the average British feels about) but against nuclear power and a large number of economists and others were saying that their power plan would leave the UK importing something like 67% of their power from the continent. I wonder if stands like that hurt them.

[The Minx]

Gordon Brown is stepping down as party leader.

Link

London, England (CNN) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday he will step down as leader of his party after it was defeated in parliamentary elections last week.

"As leader of my party I must accept that that is a judgment on me," he said.

He is asking his Labour Party to begin preparations for a new leadership contest in which he will not be a candidate, he said. That effectively means he is on his way out as prime minister.

He said he hoped a new leader would be in place by the next party conference, which is scheduled for September.

The move may clear the way for a deal to keep his party in power after elections last week left no party with an absolute majority in parliament.

Brown said a Labour-Liberal Democrat alliance made sense, given the results of Thursday's vote.

Full election coverage

"There is a progressive majority in Britain and it would be in the interest of the whole country to form a progressive coalition government," he said.

The Conservative Party won the most seats, after 13 years in opposition, but not enough to form a government on their own.

Brown's Labour Party came in second, and the Liberal Democrats came in third.

The Liberal Democrats are in talks with the Conservatives, but Brown said they had now asked for talks with Labour as well.

The Liberal Democrats refused to confirm to CNN that their leader, Nick Clegg, had made a request to Labour.

But a top party member indicated Monday that there were areas where the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives had not reached agreement after discussions through the weekend.

The two parties have not yet agreed on "education funding, fair taxes, and on issues in relation to voting reform," Liberal Democrat lawmaker David Laws said after newly elected Lib Dem members of parliament huddled to discuss the negotiations.

The Lib Dems also "agreed to continue to listen to the representations that are coming from the leader of the Labour Party," Gordon Brown, Laws said.

A Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition would command a clear majority of seats in the House of Commons, but there are wide gulfs between the two parties on many policies.

It's not clear if the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are discussing a formal coalition or Liberal Democrat support for a minority Conservative government.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats have more in common, but a coalition between them would fall just short of a majority in the Commons. A handful of lawmakers from smaller parties might be able to push a Labour-Liberal-Democrat coalition over the top.

It's extremely rare for no one party to win a majority in the House of Commons. The last time the country had a so-called "hung parliament" was in 1974, and voters were back at the polls within a year of that happening.

Electoral reform is a key issue for the Liberal Democrats, who say the current electoral system is unfair and leaves them under-represented in Parliament.

Because of the country's "first-past-the-post" electoral system, for example, the Conservatives got 36 percent of the vote, but a total of 306 of the 650 seats in Parliament.

Under proportional representation, they would have gotten 234 seats.

Labour is expected to have 258 seats with 29 percent of the vote.

But the Liberal Democrats' 23 percent of the popular vote amounted to 57 seats -- little more than a third of the roughly 150 they would have won with proportional representation.

It's unclear how far Conservative Party leader David Cameron will go on electoral reform. But he said in an e-mail to party members that he is willing to compromise on some issues.

"There are also areas where I believe we in the Conservative Party can give ground," he wrote, "both in the national interest and in the interests of forging an open and trusting partnership. For example, we want to work with the Liberal Democrats to see how we can afford to reduce taxes on the lowest paid."

Parties smaller than the Liberal Democrats hold too few seats in Parliament for them to be realistic choices for the Conservatives, analysts have said.

The last time Britain had a hung parliament was in February 1974, when Edward Heath's Conservatives gained more votes but fewer seats in Parliament than Labour.

The Conservatives proved unable to form a deal with the Liberal Party, and voters found themselves back at the polls by October.

I'm not sad to see him go.

[General Havoc]

Good riddance to Gordon Brown, says I.

[General Havoc]

It's official: The Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties have come to an arrangement, and Britain has a new PM:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/poli ... 675265.stm

Conservative leader David Cameron is the new UK prime minister after the resignation of Gordon Brown.

Mr Cameron, 43, entered 10 Downing Street after travelling to Buckingham Palace to formally accept the Queen's request to form the next government.

He said he aimed to form a "proper and full coalition" with the Lib Dems to provide "strong, stable government".

His party won the most seats in the UK general election last week, but not an overall majority.

In a speech outside his new Downing Street home, Mr Cameron said he and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg would "put aside party differences and work hard for the common good and the national interest".

He paid tribute to outgoing PM Gordon Brown for his long years of public service and said he would tackle Britain's "pressing problems" - the deficit, social problems and to "rebuild trust in our political system". Mr Cameron stressed there would be "difficult decisions" but said he wanted to take people through them to reach "better times ahead".

He said he aimed to "help build a more responsible society here in Britain... Those who can should and those who can't, we will always help. I want to make sure that my government always looks after the elderly, the frail, the poorest in our country.

"We must take everyone through with us on some of the difficult decisions we have ahead."

"I came into politics because I love this country, I think it's best days still lie ahead and I believe deeply in public service.

"I think the service our country needs right now is to face up to our big challenges, to confront our problems, take difficult decisions, lead people through those decisions, so that together we can reach better times ahead."

Lib Dem agreement

The Conservatives have been in days of negotiations with the Lib Dems - who were also negotiating with Labour - after the UK election resulted in a hung parliament.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg must get the support of a majority of his MPs and his party's ruling body, the federal executive, before he can enter into a coalition.

Earlier the Lib Dems said talks with Labour failed because "the Labour Party never took seriously the prospects of forming a progressive, reforming government".

A spokesman said key members of the Labour team "gave every impression of wanting the process to fail" and the party had made "no attempt at all" to agree a common approach on issues like schools funding and tax reform.

"Certain key Labour cabinet ministers were determined to undermine any agreement by holding out on policy issues and suggesting that Labour would not deliver on proportional representation and might not marshal the votes to secure even the most modest form of electoral reform," he said.

However Labour's Lord Mandelson told the BBC they had been "up for" a deal with the Lib Dems, but they had "created so many barriers and obstacles that perhaps they thought their interests lay on the Tory side, on the Conservative side, rather than the progressive side".

'My fault'

After it became clear the talks had failed, Mr Brown tendered his resignation and said he wished the next prime minister well.

In an emotional resignation statement outside Number Ten, Mr Brown thanked his staff, his wife Sarah and their children, who joined the couple as they left for Buckingham Palace.

Mr Brown said it had been "a privilege to serve" adding: "I loved the job not for its prestige, its titles and its ceremony - which I do not love at all. No, I loved the job for its potential to make this country I love fairer, more tolerant, more green, more democratic, more prosperous and more just - truly a greater Britain."

He also paid tribute to the courage of the armed forces, adding: "I will never forget all those who have died in honour and whose families today live in grief."

Later he thanked Labour activists and MPs for all their efforts and told them Labour's general election performance was "my fault, and my fault alone".

The Lib Dem and Conservative teams met for hours of negotiations at the Cabinet Office on Tuesday - four days after the UK general election resulted in a hung parliament.

The talks resumed after Lib Dem negotiators met a Labour team, which followed Mr Brown's announcement on Monday that he would step down as Labour leader by September.

But there were signs throughout the afternoon that the two parties - who together would still not command an overall majority in the House of Commons - would not reach a deal.

[The Minx]

Hopefully Cameron will do a better job than his predecessor.


PS: Beaten by 5 minutes. Damn.