LibDem Blogs - Archived!

BBC NEWS | Election 2005 | Weblog | Black and white: "Eagle-eyed Press Association photographer Phil Noble was at the count for Keighley, west Yorkshire when he spotted this one: A pair of Nike's Stand Up Speak UP anti-racism wristbands - a must-have among teenagers and promoted nationally by Arsenal's Thierry Henry. "

In commenting on this post, Australian Senator Andrew Bartlett, has a very valid point. He has expanded on it on his own blog. The fact is that Labour won 35.2% of the vote, amounting to just 21% of the 44 million people eligible to vote, and yet Tony Blair now commands 55% of the seats in the House of Commons. The Tories, who are only 2.8% behind, have fewer seats than the number won in 1983 by Michael Foot and the Labour Party, in one of the most disastrous results ever experienced by modern Labour. They have failed to break ...

Lembit Opik has just been on TV where he described the electoral map of Wales as a giant jaffa cake, complete with a tasty orange centre. I know, but I had to share it with you anyway.

Our vote share actually decreased. Disaster.

We did not win Harborough, but we did reduce the Tory majority from 5252 last time to 3892 this time. The full result is here. Meanwhile, here is a quotation from the American journalist I. F. Stone: The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you're going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins. In order for somebody to win an important, major fight 100 years hence, a lot of other people have got be willing - for the sheer fun and ...

On Wednesday Robert MacMillan of the Washington Post published an article looking at the parties' online campaigning in the British general election: Great Britain's three main political parties made a big effort to revamp their Internet operations in time for the 2005 campaign ... not that it will make a single bit of difference in how the elections turn out.

I have no idea why, but we had to wait for Friday afternoon for the Skipton and Ripon declaration. As expected, the Tories walked it. Slightly up for LibDem, a bit more up for Labour. It struck me looking at the results that there seemed to be few changes of seats, but that's probably because I'm basing my opinions on 1997.

Well Keighley declared about 1.30 (to be honest I can't remember :-) )- thankfully the BNP came last (although with a scarilly high number of votes). The LibDem didn't really stand a chance and the V. tall Conservative candidate cam a way behind the V. small Anne Cryer. It was pointed out that if BNP hadn't been there, and all their votes gone to the Conservatives, they would have won.

Nobody can deny that this result has been historic for the Liberal Democrats. It is more than 80 years since we've had 62 MPs in the Commons. We've gained spectacular seats in Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester, and will have to be taken seriously by the next Parliament. And we've done this by telling the truth, and not compromising on any of the difficult issues. I feel very proud of the way our party and our leader has conducted itself. But the vagueries of the electoral system have dealt us cruel blows too. In Wycombe, we've lost our fine County Councillor, ...

So we masssively increased our vote to its highest for some time. The prospects for the local elections next year look good- very good. Despite massive pressure from the other two parties on our vote, not only did it hold up but it increased and people who never supported us before have decided to cast their vote for us for the first time.But this is only the beginning- our volunteers are really happy with the result and spoiling to take on the council. Thank you to all those who have sent me good luck messages and offered ...

Exhaustion has finally caught up with me – so just to say thank you to everyone who voted and helped yesterday. You can get the details on the BBC website.

Paul Goodman (Con) 20,331Julia Wassell (Lab) 13,280James Oates (LD) 8,780Bob Davis (UKIP) 1,735David Fitton (Ind) 301Turnout: 62.2% We improved our position on last time- a solid start! Labour fell back sharply. We are now expecting 62 MPs, but most significantly, our national share of the vote has risen by around 4%. The Conservatives have gained seats, despite the fact that their vote is essentially static, because the Labour vote fell. The government has a majority despite securing only 36% of the vote. In the face of this, the case for electoral reform seems unanswerable. This is my last post of ...

In the end it was a good night for the Liberal Democrats, though as usual there were disappointments as well as triumphs. In Wales it was just exceptional. Not only did the Welsh Liberal Democrats win their chief target seat of Cardiff Central with just under 50% of the vote and a majority of 5,593, but we also took Ceredigion off Plaid Cymru too, leaving us as the second largest Welsh political party at Westminster. We also achieved exceptional results elsewhere, not least Swansea West, where we secured a 9.6% swing and polled 28.9% of the vote to storm into ...

Just processing out my data and desperate for a chatter with someone about the election. Sadly, everyone else is in bed. I had an interesting day. I've had terrible 'mental fog' and insomnia for weeks and ended up lying awake until midnight on Wednesday night. I was mentally tired but physically it was as though I'd just got up. Good I was not in work on Thursday, then. By 7:30am I was attempting to pick-up a 'leaflet drop' Tom had left me of 'Good morning' leaflets behind some trees. What Tom didn't tell me was the trees were in the ...

I did the traditional staying-up until victory of an election night last night. For me it was depressingly dull. The first few seats pointed to large LibDem swings, yet there were legions of Labour Holds for the first few holds, which then turned way to Con Holds as the conservative seats started declaring. A few v. important victories for the LDs, a few annoying setbacks. 10 more seats than last election, 7 more than when the election was called. A watershed it most definitely wasn't. Howevera piece of Peter Snow analysis brings hope. Before last night the swings to LibDem ...

Despite all the name calling amongst politicians, for ordinary people the election remained a civilised affair in which differences within families were tolerated and freely expressed. However, some unintended predictions proved to be premature. After last night's results I think that Charles Kennedy has a long way to go before he is ready for a retirement home.

Returned with a majority of 125 which may well be one of the smallest in the country. It's always nice to be number one but I had something in mind other than number one target seat. Although canvass returns looked good I knew that it was going to be tight when we realised that there were a lot of Tory activists from out of the area. Had not appreciated how tight and when agent rang me we thought I had lost so I arrived at the count feeling rather despondent. Three recounts later and that was it but I really ...

As the newly elected MP for Yardley I am intending to start my campaign of listening to the people of Yardley. Sadly, however, today I need to attend a funeral. The campaign will, therefore, start tomorrow. Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I have not posted anything for a few days. I have been a bit busy. However, normal service will resume in the near future (and hopefully a