Last night was one of the most significant landslide victories ever achieved by a party in the UK's history. Although not as substantial as Blair's or Thatcher's victories, the fact that the Conservative party has dropped so low is awe-inspiring.
Below is an interactive graph showing the number of seats gained graphically:
And here is another one showing the share of the vote achieved by each party, and it's not quite as red as the previous graph:
I'm most impressed by Ed Davey, who has drawn me back to the Liberal Democrats again.
Strangely, this is the first time I've had a new UK government since I started to vote 14 years ago.
This is an exciting time in politics personally as this represents the first change in a long time. Keir Starmer seems like an honest guy (he'd have to be to have worked in law beforehand), and I feel he's the right person to do the job. The Lib Dems have recovered very well from this election, too, and I'm not surprised with Ed at the helm.
Starmer seems to care for all four parts of the country too:
We clearly on Thursday got a mandate from all four nations. For the first time in 20 plus years we have a majority in England, in Scotland and in Wales and that is a clear mandate to govern for all four corners of the United Kingdom and therefore I shall set off tomorrow to be in all four nations.
Scotland made its voice very clear last night. The Exit poll was nearly 100% accurate with it's predictions and almost every seat in Scotland now belongs to the SNP.
The prediction was that Liberal Democrat Alistair Carmichael would retain his seat and the Conservative David Mundell would retain his.
What we saw though was not an overnight change rather a change that has been coming along for sometime.
The following graph shows how massive the swing was:
Across Scotland, several notable figures were outsted from their seats:
Douglas Alexander
Michael Moore
Jo Swinson
Ed Davey
Danny Alexander
Jim Murphy
Charles Kennedy
Images from OGL and CC license.
In the list Jo Swinson and Charles Kennedy were two that I did not expect to have as much trouble retaining their seats as Jim Murphy and Douglas Alexander.
Last night the SNP saw swings of up to 39% - something we've not seen like this before.
However, the UK as a whole voted for another Conservative government. This is the result of punishing the Liberal Democrats by not voting for them down south (which is how democracy works anyway, which is a good thing). What I'm saying is, the Conservatives only have a majority of 13 seats, so if a few Liberal Democrats kept their seats we may have had another hung parliament which could have lead to a Labour-SNP coalition.
Anyway, I'm not massively bothered as amazed at the turnout and swing in Scotland.
My rant for today is with littering in the UK. I was on my way home from the local town, and as I was passing a house, I looked at the grass just outside their house and something that really annoys me is that they clearly spend a lot of time and money on their house, but people just do not seem to care and throw litter out in the direction of their grass.
Here's the other part of the story. When I was out shopping at a supermarket, people who had clearly been to McDonalds had just finished their food and they just opened the door and put it on the ground, now I don't get so annoyed when they do this in the McDonalds car parks (I don't like it but McDonalds put the Drive Thru and car park there), but when they do it in a car park for a supermarket, that's just plain lazy. Especially saying as the bin was about 3 cars away. It's also just disrespectful.
We have finally arrived at a new government! I must say, after 13 years of Labour it is exciting (but the Tory part is not so exciting), but I do not know if it is what I want. The only reason that I can possibly say that I would enjoy having this new government is that the Liberal Democrats will be holding some key places in it hopefully. Nonetheless, I would have preferred having Labour over the Conservatives, but I am going to give this new coalition a chance and see how it goes.
I wish the new government the best of luck!
The First Past The Post system is past its time. The system
Simply does not reflect the hopes of the British people
according to the Liberal Democrats leader. Nick Clegg announced on Friday morning with great sadness that the system is completely useless. The Liberal Democrats obviously lost seats in the election and this resulted in a serious need for reform. First Past The Post is past its time now, we need to reform.
The deeply saddening news that I wish to share is news that all will already know. The Liberal Democrats sadly did not do as well as we had hoped in last night's election. Instead of hanging on to our seats or gaining seats, we actually lost seats.
A particular loss for us was Lepbit Opik, who stood in Montgomeryshire and was previously our Housing Spokesperson.
On the plus side, we did manage to hold our most important seats, Nick Clegg's Sheffield Hallam, Ed Davey's Kingston and Surbiton, Chris Huhne's Eastleigh and Vince Cable's Twickenham, but still, a Liberal coalition could ensure parliamentary reform, and the Liberal Democrats would stand more of a chance in the next election(s).
Below is just a small sample of the election results:
Conservatives: 10,706,647 votes = 306 seats
Labour: 8,604,358 votes = 258 seats
Liberal Democrats: 6,827,938 votes = 57 seats
Here are the share of seats in a graphical format:
And here is another one showing the share of the vote achieved by each party:
We need reform. In my opinion, each vote should count to the country.
For the first time in my life, I will be able to vote! So here we are today, and after all my hard work for the party, we come to election day 2010! Make the vote that counts! Britain needs change. Britain needs the Liberal Democrats to hold back the SNP!
Come on people! This is the final push to the election! Labour have failed in the past few years, the Tories will indefinitely change the country from something that has been created successfully for generations.
All of you undecided voters, the Liberal Democrats are the only party that offers the change this country needs - a step forward, not backward.
So, vote for the Liberal Democrats on the 6th of May 2010 for change that works for you!
Yesterday, Michael Crick of Newsnight, interviewed Stuart Ritchie, the Lib Dem candidate for MP in East Lothian. Now, as I feel strongly about change in East Lothian I also offered to come along to do some campaigning that day, and to my shock and surprise, I was on television! I do not know if they will actually show any of me in the background, but they might, it just depends on whether they cut my part out or not. We shall see tonight.
Update
There was no footage of me.
Finally, a change in the politics of this country! The Lib Dems seem to have taken a large majority of Tory and Labour voters for themselves.
Essentially, we could become one of the two largest parties again, if however we can keep this going to the election. Nick Clegg did exceptionally well at the First Leaders Debate. This has reinforced Vince Cable's excellence at the Chancellors Debate.
We actually have a strong chance this time! Come on Liberal Democrats, let's make the change the country needs!
