I went to bed at 12.30 with things looking increasingly grim for Labour, and I’m surprised that when I got up just before 6 they’d improved considerably. The short version: Labour will win an unprecedented third term, but with a reduced majority of 60-something; the Liberal Democrats have made big gains in votes, but less so in seats (and have hurt Labour); and the Tories’ negative campaign has won them some seats but no increased popularity. Oh, and George Galloway ousted Oona King. But you could get all this just by “reading the BBC”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/default.stm .
{ 8 comments }
ab 05.06.05 at 12:47 am
Good result overall, shame about Galloway!
derrida derider 05.06.05 at 1:03 am
Five years is a long time, but the Lib Dems must have hopes of becoming the main opposition then, and even an outside chance of government. They’ll only need a small swing to pick up an awful lot of new seats (the vagaries of an FPTP system). The Tories are in a deep structural malaise, and getting more and more irrelevant. If the economy is stumbling then, or if Gordon Brown turns out to be unsellable ….
cgs 05.06.05 at 1:13 am
Did you see Galloway’s victory speech? Crikey. And then his interview with Paxman? Double-crikey.
James Palmer 05.06.05 at 3:52 am
Doesn’t look like any significant gain in popularity for the Tories, and they’re still saddled with a disastrous leadership election system that depends on the votes of blue-rinsed old bigots. (God knows what their performance would have been this time if IDS was still in as leader.) I’d say their chances for next time are still weak.
I noticed the Labour vote in Brown’s own constituency dropped by far, far less than almost everywhere else in Britain …
Nice to see a reduced majority – though still a pretty good one, mind! – for Labour; probably at the level now where a serious backbench rebellion can threaten them, which means they won’t be pushing through some of the more appalling anti-civil liberties stuff. Anybody more informed than me know what kind of percentage of Old Labour or Blairites went?
Delicious pundit 05.06.05 at 9:41 am
But you could get all this just by reading the BBC .
I know. But it just sounds so sexy when you say it.
john 05.06.05 at 9:42 am
Doesn’t look like any significant gain in popularity for the Tories, and they’re still saddled with a disastrous leadership election system that depends on the votes of blue-rinsed old bigots.
Hasn’t Howard now said he’ll resign as leader after they reform their leadership election policies?
Mo MacArbie 05.06.05 at 11:46 am
Well good, Labor has held off the foul Appeasers!
(Just kidding. Does Godwin’s Law have a Chamberlain clause yet?)
Daniel 05.06.05 at 11:47 am
You missed the other big news: that H’Angus the Monkey was re-elected Mayor of Hartlepool in a landslide and got engaged.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/england/4522687.stm
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