So despite doorstep complaints about having the highest council tax in London and that we weren't an efficient council and Losing 2,000 od votes in the general election we actually managed to gain council seats!
As a Westminster Lib Dem candidate there is no denying that the election results were disappointing. Willie Rennie losing his seat in Dunfermline and Kevin Lang failing to gain Edinburgh North & Leith were particular lows for me, while seeing our increase in the proportion of the vote and holding the balance of power provided ...
From the first statements from Cameron it looks like it is going to be difficult to get PR into any coalition agreement, though you never know, so what on earth can we do to try and raise this issue more both within a coalition or without. Well firstly we can try and put pressure on ...
Liberal Democrats have retained control of Kingston Council with 27 seats, over the Conservatives' 21 seats. Labour was wiped out. Here in South of the Borough, we held on to all the seats in Tolworth & Hook Rise and Chessington South. I'm a bit gutted that we lost one of the seats in Chessington North & Hook to the Tories, but very pleased that both Alan Dean and Margaret Thompson were elected. I have had four hours sleep since 5.30am yesterday morning. Spent the day running the Committee Room then off to the Parliamentary count through the night from 10.30pm ...
Just been doing some quick-and-dirty analysis of the accuracy of pre-campaign polling for yesterday's general election. Nate Silver has looked at eve-of-election polling here, but I wanted to look at pre-campaign polls because I'd heard it said in previous elections that the most accurate polls tended to be those taken immediately before the official campaign. For what it's worth, I reach different conclusions as to which pollsters are the most accurate at this early stage of the campaign than Nate does for the final polls. I also wanted to check out my gut feeling in the early days of the ...
Last night many hundreds of people across the country were denied the ability to cast a vote in the general and local elections. Let's make no bones about it. It's a scandal which mars yesterday's election. I've got a fair amount of experience with different types of election. Before being elected, I worked as an election expert for the Electoral Reform Society and monitored countless elections around the country, including the electoral fraud cases in Birmingham, Hackney and so on. I also led the UK election monitoring missions eight times, including to Bulgaria, Serbia and Guyana. In every single one ...
On Saturday afternoon the party's Federal Executive is meeting to discuss how the party should handle the Parliamentary situation. There's no pre-set, universally supported answer to this so the FE's discussion is going to be meaningful and important - which means that if you want to influence what the party does, now is the time to let the FE know. Because many members of the Federal Executive are scattered around the country - sleeping, travelling back from election counts, making their way to London and so on - the FE members may be hard to get hold of and many ...
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a fairly well-defined entity. A really big island, lots of smaller ones, bits of another big one, and spots in between. The UK Parliament — located at Westminster — serves as the representative body of this entity. 650 Members of Parliament form that body, drawn from all points of 'GB&NI'. But how are they drawn from that area? As we saw on May 6th it is a matter of random lines drawn across the countryside, dividing populations into zones of allegedly similar sizes with each of those zones returning an ...
The Conservatives at Shirehall have again discussed the current stalemate on the Guided Busway. The meeting minutes are available here. The agenda and other items are available: The Guided Busway starts at point 171. You'll notice that in typical County-style point 172 excludes the press and public and count 173 presents a confidential report. It's disappointing, but perhaps understandable, that some legal issues need to be discussed in private. Cabinet resolved to: i) Note the progress that is being made towards sectional completion and the opening of the busway between Cambridge and St Ives and in particular, the current ...
Ok at around 2:15 this morning the final result for Linlithgow and East Falkirk was declared. In case you did not see the result here it is: Michael Connarty Labour 25,634 49.8% Tam Smith SNP 13,081 25.4% Stephen Glenn Liberal Democrat 6,589 12.8% Andrea Stephenson Conservative 6,146 11.9% So for a final round up of events I'm splitting things into three categories. The Good First off there were 6,588 of my fellow constituents who voted along with me for the Liberal Democrat change in our constituency so thank you one and all. Of them there have been a number of ...
Over the last 24 hours or so, in a state of mildly delirious sleep-deprivation, I've been mulling over the implications of a potential conservative government. It has not been enjoyable. I find myself in a position of being fairly desperate to help create something akin to the Tories' "Big Society" vision. Not because of all the wonderful incentives they might introduce, but because I'm pretty sure if we don't do everything ourselves, their rolling back of the State in our time of greatest need could quickly lead to a dystopian nightmare if we don't pull our sleeves up and get ...
The Green Party have been the darlings of the local media in Norwich for some time. Their success in local elections has allowed local news media outlets to have easy copy on politics issues that seems different and quirky, whilst those same media outlets never expose the Greens to cross examination of their policy, the conduct, their behaviour and their sheer duplicity which those of us who have analysed them for sometimes can see plain as day. The media would had something of a wake up call during the Norwich by-election when the Greens ramped themselves up, and the media ...
Lets be frank, this is shaping up to be a rather demoralising election. Not only are our results nothing like what we expected, Clegg looks like he is going to pass up the chance for reforming our electoral system. Clegg's argument that Cameron has more of a mandate seems hypocritical when you consider that the ...
I am sitting here nursing a number of injuries which are currently abating. Don't get me wrong. My campaigning efforts were extremely moderate but anno domini and stupdity takes its toll. The full checklist is currently: -Back of hand graze from letterboxes. -Bruising from my first dog bite in nearly twenty years delivering LibDem leaflets -Double puncture wound to thumb from those blinking annoying ends of springs which lurk under some letterboxes. -Knees that won't allow me to walk until they've been limbered up. -Ankle problem. -Shin problem. -General knackeredness. But I'm smiling. On the plus side, I do love ...
Just a quick update; the election result in King's Hedges was as follows: Matthew Adams Conservative 813 Martin Booth Cambridge Socialists 92 Simon Brierley Liberal Democrats 1236 Alexandra Collis Green 274 Elizabeth Hughes Labour 986
Perhaps the most remarkable result of Thursday night was Caroline Lucas's victory in Brighton Pavilion. It is hard to overestimate how difficult it is for a small party to win its first seat under a first past the post system. Still I can't help remembering a posting on this blog from June 2007 which explained how Lucas had muscled in on the patch of the Green councillor who had made the seat such a good prospect for the party. And there was more at the time on The Daily (Maybe).
Fri 7th
21:12
No good: trying to catch up on emails but falling asleep at my desk having had little sleep last 2 n...
No good: trying to catch up on emails but falling asleep at my desk having had little sleep last 2 nights. Must quickly read the young chap a bedtime story (first time in ages) but will fall asleep first!
Friday: First let's get this out of our system: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Right... HUG Daddy, and... NOW is time that our Four Principles were prepared for. Captain Clegg has stuck to his word and made clear that the Party with more votes and more seats - that's the Conservatories - should have first TRY at forming a Government. The Liberal Democrats should NOT go into a Lib/Con coalition. But we should seek to negotiate a "comfort and supply" deal on the following conditions: 1. Fair Taxes There should IMMEDIATELY be formed an all-Party economy committee to conduct a full spending review. NO ...
Fri 7th
20:38Spoke earlier to my friend Simon Wright the new Lib Dem MP for Norwich South. So pleased for him and...
Spoke earlier to my friend Simon Wright the new Lib Dem MP for Norwich South. So pleased for him and team. He will have an interesting first meeting of Lib Dem MPs over the weekend.
There is a huge amount of speculation as to what might happen during the next 48 hours. It is very difficult to predict the outcome of the talks between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. For what it worth, here is my take on what has been happening. Nick Clegg's announcement During the campaign, Nick Clegg said that if a party gained a majority of seats and majority share of the vote, they would have the moral right to try and form a government. Constitutionally, whoever is in power has that right. In the situation the parties found themselves this morning, ...
There was an Independent candidate in the Leicester West constituency who is best described as colourful. Over to the Leicester Mercury: "I've slept with hundreds of women. Hundreds. And thousands of men," muses the man in the "Pure Magic" Leicester City hat, off-white rosette, camouflage shorts and blue Gola trainers. "Everyone is bisexual to a degree," says the 52-year-old, arching an eyebrow. "You might have a dabble if someone was willing." A lot more where that came from has been kept in the notebook. Prospective MP David J Bowley - "that's J for John with an H, the Northbridge Tavern, ...
Regular readers of this blog will be unsurprised to learn that as far as I am concerned, a referendum on electoral reform to a more proportional system is a red line for me in any coalition negotiations now we are in a balanced parliament situation. The fact that we increased our vote share by 1% to 23% yesterday but our number of seats fell by nearly 10% just underlines (yet again) how broken our electoral system is. The Labour Party are already offering such a referendum. However there are a number of problems in considering joining with them. For example, ...
Nick Clegg has made clear the LibDems' four priorities for post-election negotiation. I could not hear anything from Cameron about compromise on the deficit reduction programme. There needs to be a cross-party Council for financial stability. I cannot see the Liberal Democrats supporting an immediate hare-brained Osbourne deep cuts programme. The Tories will have to compromise on this. And the all party committee on electoral reform is a joke. Heath first offered it to Thorpe in 1974 and it was rejected. We also went through the ultimately pointless Jenkins commission in the 90s. The fact that Cameron always mentions his ...
Local politics is a strange beast and last night was a night of highs and lows. I've already documented how Rosie Sharpley was defeated at the hands of a Tory smash and grab in Woking but we also had local elections last night that threw up some very interesting results. We had two great council ...
On Saturday afternoon the party's Federal Executive is meeting to discuss how the party should handle the Parliamentary situation. There's no pre-set, universally supported answer to this so the FE's discussion is going to be meaningful and important. It's only one part of the party's consultative process, which also includes - for example - a meeting of the Parliamentary Party. But it does mean that now is an excellent time to let the FE know your views. Because many members of the Federal Executive are scattered around the country - sleeping, travelling back from election counts, making their way to ...
This weekend will be the hardest weekend every know to Liberal Democrats. Charlotte Gore has blogged about Nick Cleggs impossible position. It is that because Nick Clegg promised the British people that the Liberal Democrats would work with whichever party one the most votes. Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives need to now work together for the good of the country. Of course this means Labour and obose all the various cuts that will be required and in opposition will look like the good guys. I do not think this would split the Liberal Democrat party, some may leave but I ...
Keep the pressure on. Email him here, and tweet at @nick_clegg. Mention STV. AV and AV+ are not really good enough, and he knows this is true. Let's deliver a fair voting system for ever. Email. Tweet. Pass it on. NO COALITION WITHOUT PR, NICK email cleggn@parliament.uk tweet at @nick_clegg #letsactuallyfixthevotingsystem please RT Edit: added hashtag. Also, you can email the Lib Dem Federal Executive here. Please be brief, polite and unsubtle.
I have spent most of the day sleeping having been utterly exhasuted after last nights count in Woking. Quote frankly, after all the hard work of the past few months, watching Jonathan Lord smugly walking about Woking Leisure Centre was something that was incredibly hard to take. I stand firmly behind my comments that the ...
If you hang around the yellow bit of the internet much you'll know that the Lib Dem Voice server is utterly borked, owing to a surfeit of people trying to get on there to tell other people what they reckon, and a surfeit of journalists trying to get on there to selectively misrepresent to the ...
Delivering in one of those areas where even the drives have drives. Tired now. #nickcleggsfault # @markpack LDs at 26% according to ComRes email ...? in reply to markpack # @markpack Cons 37%, Lab 29%, Lib Dems 26%, Others 8% Ahem 10pm embargo [IMG: :)] in reply to markpack # @davidrundle only if it had serious Balls. in reply to davidrundle # @davidrundle Welcome to Twitter btw. How're u finding being ltd to 140 characters? in reply to davidrundle # Oh FFS, grow up: RT @LABOUR_MEDIA_HQ Please RT>''Voting for Nick Clegg, is like asking for an in-experienced schoolboy to run ...
I know its hard to hear and I know that some people will be saying we should rejecting it straight off for whatever reason but please bare with me. The First thing has to be that this isn't the final offer and things can change before the final options are forward so lets not judge ...
Lord (David) Steel recalled his involvement in the various negotiations during the 1970s, the last time there was an election which produced a hung parliament, in a letter to The Times during the campaign – it seemed worth dusting down in the current circumstances ... Sir, Your leader today on hung parliaments contained a number of dubious assertions. First, you say that in February 1974 Mr Heath's offer of coalition foundered on his refusal to include electoral reform. As a survivor of those discussions I have to say that this was not the most determining factor. One was that even ...
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If there is a demand for this I would intend to organise a meeting in Yardley for Yardley Lib Dem supporters to discuss the issue of what the Lib Dems should do in a hung parliament (as in the one that is now hung).Can anyone interested in such a meeting please write to or email my office.
Last night saw the electoral system used to elect people to the United Kingdom parliament creak and fail under the demands of the electorate. The votes we cast were in no way reflected by the seats won. In Hove, for example, the Liberal Democrats took votes from Labour and the Conservatives won. The new Liberal voters were lost in the system. This travesty was repeated up and down the country; with an electorate of some 45 million people, the vote difference between Labour and the Liberal Democrats was 1.5 million. The ratio of votes cast for the two parties was ...
Well. That wasn't pretty. I settled down in the pub last night and, stupidly, had allowed Cleggmania to go to my head. I wasn't expecting too much, a slight rise in seats. But what we got... well it was a bloodbath really. Oh sure, we're still better off than in 2001. No doubt about it. But we lost some very good MPs, especially Dr Evan Harris. But, BUT, we still gained an extra percentage point in terms of share of the vote which again highlights the ludicrous nature of our electoral system. Now our party leadership faces a choice... 1) ...
Please feel free to take the text below and e-mail it, phone it, send it with carrier pigeons or whatever to as many Lib Dems as possible - yip, this is a genuine consultation exercise, meant to go up on Lib Dem Voice which is having a few traffic issues at the moment. The Voice's Alex Foster is the author. "On Saturday afternoon the party's Federal Executive is meeting to discuss how the party should handle the Parliamentary situation. There's no pre-set, universally supported answer to this so the FE's discussion is going to be meaningful and important - which ...
Nick Clegg should make it very simple. Either the Conservatives agree to let voters determine how future elections are decided. Or the Lib Dems, perfectly legitimately, use the system that Cameron and co. are so intent on preserving to turn elsewhere. It's not an unreasonable request at all. We're not demanding that PR be introduced on our say so. We're just arguing that in a genuine democracy, it's a decision that needs to be made by the electorate - not the people in power who have a vested interest in what their party has to lose and gain. Conservatives taking ...
In brief, here they are: Berechurch: LD 1535, Lab 1224, Con 897, Green 112 Lib Dem gain from Conservative Birch & Winstree: Con 2019, Lib Dem 677, Lab 358, Green 154 Castle: Lib Dem 1774, Con 1112, Green 913, Labour 449 Christ Church: Lib Dem 1218, Con 717, Green 236, Lab 200 Fordham & Stour: Con 1698, LD 744, Lab ...
(Hat-tip http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/).
So what happens if we don't accept David Cameron's "big, open and comprehensive" offer? I see two options. The first is a short-lived Conservative administration and a second general election later this year. That would be undesirable for two reasons. The first is that it would make the government - or at least make it appear - fragile at a time of great economic danger. That would be undesirable in itself and leads on to the second, more partisan, reason. I do not think the Liberal Democrats would welcome a second election this year. We do not have the resources ...
This is Nick Clegg's statement of earlier today in full: Last night was a disappointment for the Liberal Democrats. Even though more people voted for us than ever before, even though we had a higher proportion of the vote than ever before, it is of course a source of great regret to me that we have lost some really valued friends and colleagues and we have returned to Parliament with fewer MPs than before. It's clear that many people were excited by the prospect of doing something different. But when it came to the vote, they decided to stay with ...
Consider what a few days can do to the expected seat results. This is from the market: Quite simply, Labour gained 35 seats over where they were generally expected to be for the whole time from Duffy to the Tooting Declaration. They took 15 of these seats from a Conservative total that was expected to ...
I listened to Nick Clegg talking about understanding people's fears of change. I suppose he's right, though I haven't quite reached that point in the recovery process myself. But I suppose - like so many of us (at least us Lib Dems) - I have been struggling today to understand why the excitement of the polls didn't last the full campaign, and disappeared once people were actually in polling booths. There are a whole lot of reflections about our campaign and its authenticity that I keep being tempted to blog about, but I don't think they go to the heart ...
Freaky Friday. There seemed little rhyme or reason to a lot of the results. The Tories clearly did quite well, but there will be huge reservations about the fact that they failed to seal the deal. If Gordon Brown is really as unpopular as they claimed, why couldn't they pick up enough seats to win an overall majority? For Brown, the result was not nearly as bad as it might have been. Sure there were a lot of losses and there seems little credibility to his desire the hang on in there. As Guido puts it, he is looking increasingly ...
Here are the Liberal Democrat entries in the top 100 political blogs as ranked by Wikio: 1 (6) Liberal Democrat Voice Rises 1 2 (15) Mark Reckons Rises 2 3 (37) Craig Murray Rises 13 4 (46) Mark Pack Rises 19 5 (53) Stephen's Linlithgow Journal Falls 4 6 (55) Caron's Musings Rises 7 7 (56) Liberal England Rises 1 8 (61) Liberal Vision Falls 2 9 (63) Quaequam Blog! Rises 17 10 (68) People's Republic of Mortimer Rises 15 11 (71) Andrew Reeves's Running Blog Rises 6 12 (73) Freethinking Economist Rises 2 13 (80) Miss S B Falls ...
[IMG: http://www.wikio.co.uk] Reading Council make up: 19 Labour (n/c) 17 Tories (-1) 9 Lib Dem (+1) 1 Green (well done Rob) Random thoughts: Rebecca Rye is my hero! Was tight in Katesgrove but we just about took the seat from Labour (I never understand why people vote for a party that has given up locally). Despite the Conservatives best efforts, Rick Duveen remained in Tilehurst, and had quite a good majority. Tories failed to take the council, again. Much was made in the last Council meeting about Tories taking power, but I think this is evidence that they have peaked ...
[IMG: ballot] The Federal Executive has asked for members' contributions to their discussions as to what the party's strategy should be in the current situation of a balanced parliament. This is what I've just sent to them at balancedparliament@libdemvoice.org: I think it essential that the Lib Dems work on an issue-by-issue basis in opposition, scrutinising and improving policy and legislation as it arises, rather than jumping into a deal with either the Tories or Labour. Such a deal would only lead to hopeless compromises on issues cherished very deeply by a large proportion of party members such as electoral reform, ...
Let's attempt to get back to normal blogging by celebrating the Golden Jubilee of this feature. Most of yesterday's winners and losers are still to tired to blog about their experiences, but a few have managed it. Steve Webb on The Webb Log is delighted to be the first MP for Thornbury and Yate. And Birkdale Focus celebrates John Pugh's retention of Southport for the Liberal Democrats. The Freethinking Economist would like the answer to several questions about the election. Notably, what did Labour do to switch the momentum back towards them in so many of the seats we hoped ...
After what was a very long night - and a couple of hours sleep - what's the conclusion? First it strikes me as somewhat amusing that all three party's bloggers are disgruntled... Labour boys saying Brown's got to go, the Tories asking how the hell did the Tories not win and that their strategists should go...and Liberals asking wtf happened to the so-called surge that left us with less seats than before. Lots of disgruntlement all round. There will be a time and place to analyse the Lib Dem strategy and be in no doubt serious questions must be asked. ...
Losing stinks, I won't deny. I feel your pain. But take comfort. Be proud. There is no shame in standing and losing, but only in not caring enough to take a stand. You had the rare privilege of being chosen to stand for a cause and a community that matters to you. Now someone else ...
Yesterday the British people voted for a Parliament that looked roughly like this: Conservative 36% 234 seats Labour 30% 195 seats Lib Dems 23% 150 seats and others who I'm too tired to work out. instead we got a Parliament that looks like this Conservative 36% 300 ish seats Labour 30% 260 ish seats Lib Dems 23% 55 ish seats and others who are also being shafted. That is an absolute outrage. Both Tories and Labour are way over-represented and the Liberal Democrats are way under-represented. To me it's essential that whatever government comes together in the next few days, ...
On Saturday afternoon the party's Federal Executive is meeting to discuss how the party should handle the Parliamentary situation. There's no pre-set, universally supported answer to this so the FE's discussion is going to be meaningful and important. It's only one part of the party's consultative process, which also includes - for example – a meeting of the Parliamentary Party. But it does mean that now is an excellent time to let the FE know your views. Because many members of the Federal Executive are scattered around the country – sleeping, travelling back from election counts, making their way to ...
[IMG: cameron-clegg_1529392c] Photo: Andrew Cowie/Barcroft Media Over on ConservativeHome, Harry Phibbs suggests the Conservatives should agree to the Lib Dems' policy on raising the Income Tax threshold to £10,000. The only problem being that rather than funding it through closing loopholes on the rich (not RAISING taxes as such, but making them fairer by bringing them into line with what poorer people have to pay), Phibbs advocates using spending cuts instead. As chrisjw133 tweeted after I pointed this out, 'it turns something progressive into regressive in one quick step'. Precisely. This sort of idea is precisely why a Tory/Lib Dem ...
The results for both Luton seats and the South Ward council by-election can be found here on the Council's website. My reaction to the result in Luton South is naturally one of deep disapointment, but also a genuine confusion at why the Labour vote would have held up so well. My response to the national picture is a general sense of bewilderment and some real heartache over some specific results. Very pleased about Simon Wright in Norwich South and Sarah Teather in Brent Central though. Will write more after I have found the energy to put my thoughts into something ...
Could a coalition actually happen after all? Both Lib Dems and Tories will be distinctly uneasy about it. How much will they trust their leaders that they're doing the right thing? But if the negotiations begin, they will be extraordinarily delicate. I observed them at a close distance in 2007, in the aftermath of the ...
Over at The Guardian's Comment is Free website, Lib Dem blogger James Graham looks at what the results mean for the party: What can I say about this result? I'm bereft. It isn't even a result so awful that the Lib Dems could sit by the sidelines and let everyone else sort out the mess the country is in. That, at least, would be easy. In fact, just to make things even more galling, we seem to have actually increased our share of the vote to a level that we would have been delighted with a month ago. What a ...
Election day, 6 May, was, as expected, the most busiest day of all, from getting up at 4am to delivering the election day leaflets, through to the last knock-ups at 9pm, and on to waiting for the result at 5am - a 25 hour day, then four hours sleep, before up again for the council results. I might sleep for two days before going back to work on Monday. But there's no denying it - the Liberal Democrat results nationally and locally were very disappointing. It seems many people lost their nerve and went back to the devils they knew. ...
Well, as I write this, just 4 seats are left to be called in the General Election. Nationwide, the picture isn't so rosy for the Liberal Democrats. To put it bluntly, we got a good kicking last night. Of course, in Ceredigion, the picture is much rosier. The constituents here have made a decisive choice ...
It's rather like a viper sidling up to you but the offer of co-operation from the Conservatives must be considered. The specific point I would like to see responded to robustly is on the proposed 'commission of enquiry' into electoral reform. The plain answer should be reference to the last commission set up to look at this by another slippery customer in 1997, which reported back to propose a perfectly reasonable system called AV+, which would work with the existing constituency system and which would have a significant element of proportionality. It would be nice to see this as a ...
Update: the party's Federal Executive and Parliamentary Party are both meeting on Saturday to discuss what the party should do next. As I understand it there's no intention of the party leadership publicly proposing a position until before then. David Cameron has just made his pitch to the TV cameras outlining the approach he wants to take to forming a government and reasons the Liberal Democrats should have for supporting it. He outlined several areas of possible policy agreement. Some are ones where the parties clearly already agrees, such as in opposing ID cards. Some are one where although the ...
I've not seen a transcript yet, but here's ConservativeHome's paraphrase of David Cameron's supposed "offer" to the Lib Dems: I thank Nick Clegg for recognising that the Tories won most new seats and I will now talk to the Liberal Democrats about delivering the kind of government Britain needs. I offer reassurances to the Liberal Democrats so that they support a minority Conservative government but I am also willing to discuss other possibilities. There are some non-negotiables. No government can give more powers to Europe. We must be strong on immigration. It is reasonable that the bulk of the Tory ...
Cameron this afternoon, staked his claim as a leader of a minority government, claiming the authority of a larger share of the vote, offering not a lot, to Lib Dems but mentioning tackling things together fixing a broken political system not sure whether that comes after sorting broken Britain. Its clearly that not surprisingly that David Cameron expects to be Prime Minister some time soon, despite Gordon Brown's selflessly running Britain in the mean time. [IMG: ready to compromise] In Thanet Tom Betts of Yourthanet has posted up his interviews (from earlier this morning) with Thanet South winner Laura Sandys ...
Today Nick Clegg Leader of the Liberal Democrats said that the party with the greatest number of seats and the greatest number of votes was the one which had the mandate to try and form a government. Last night was a disappointment for the Liberal Democrats. Even though more people voted for us than ever before, even though we had a higher proportion of the vote than ever before, it is of course a source of great regret to me that we have lost some really valued friends and colleagues and we have returned to Parliament with fewer MPs than ...
Today Nick Clegg Leader of the Liberal Democrats said that the party with the greatest number of seats and the greatest number of votes was the one which had the mandate to try and form a government. Last night was a disappointment for the Liberal Democrats. Even though more people voted for us than ever before, even though we had a higher proportion of the vote than ever before, it is of course a source of great regret to me that we have lost some really valued friends and colleagues and we have returned to Parliament with fewer MPs than ...
My sleep deprived brain would struggle to understand these matters when on top form. But right now, I have no idea: What did Labour do to switch momentum from Lib Dems back to Labour? In Islington South, Edinburgh South, the City of Durham, Oxford East and most tragically Hampstead and Kilburn they seemed, somehow, to ...
[IMG: pixel_scared] The British electorate, yesterday. This morning at around 5.30, I was assailed by highly conflicting emotions as I watched Julian Huppert officially declared David Howarth's successor as Member of Parliament for Cambridge. An increased majority of 6792 was a gratifying result for everyone involved in the campaign and I have every confidence that Julian will make a fine MP, both in the constituency and in Westminster. But a majority of 20,000 couldn't have made up for the situation around the country, which cannot be described as anything other than deeply disappointing for the Lib Dems. Although there were ...
Here are the headline figures currently: Conservative 36%, 306 MPs Labour 29%, 258 MPs Lib Dems 23%, 57 MPs As many have pointed out, how absurd is it that the Lib Dems can increase its share of the vote, but lose 10% of its MPs? As Ben Goldacre tweeted: lib dems get 6.6m votes and 53 seats, labour get 8.4m votes and 252 seats, our voting system is broken You can find a full list of Lib Dem MPs here. 2.20 pm Three results have come in over the last hour or so, all Lib Dem HOLDS (phew). So congratulations ...
All, Just a quick message of thanks to everyone who helped in my campaign - and above all to the voters of Shipston who gave me an increased majority of 268. I will try to prove that I deserve your trust. Philip [Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]
Okay not all the results have come in yet but we know its a hung parliament. The thing that all us libs are asking ourselves is, "where did all those cleggmania votes go?" a 1% rise in votes and a reduction in seats is very against the flow of what the polls showed. I think ...
Gordon Brown a makes dramatic entrance, outside No. 10 earlier at 1:40 this afternoon, acting in a Prime Ministerly fashion as you will imagine totally selflessly with a brief mention of his sudden conversion, over proportional representation. In no way is Brown clutching a straws and desparate. [IMG: cluching at straws] A rather shabby performance when measured, against Nick Clegg's more statesman like reiteration of his intention of respecting the morality of dealing, as a preference with the Party with the most MP's and votes.
Disclaimer: this is a complex subject, in which the outcome depends on a huge number of factors. I know a little about some of those factors, but that's about it, and people's stated positions on this are changing almost hourly. Therefore, what I write here shouldn't be taken with any confidence at all, nor thought of as a prediction. At best, it's a vague mapping out of a few of the potholes on the road ahead. At worst, most of it will turn out to be wrong or irrelevant, and will be contradicted by events, quite possibly before I've even ...
I argue urgently that we Lib Dems should not enter into any formal pact with anyone, but should remain in opposition to a minority Conservative and Unionist government. I won't pretend that last night was not horribly disappointing, as First Past The Post radically distorted our representation as usual. I went through this disappointment before, in February 1974 , in the election that first brought me in to political activity. Then, there was an even greater buzz about Jeremy Thorpe than there has been about Nick Clegg - and Thorpe was a spectacularly charismatic figure. Third party politics really had ...
I am really proud of Nick Clegg. He said during the election that the party with the largest mandate given by the people should have the first opportunity to form a government either on its own or with other parties. Now that we know the results, it's pretty blindingly obvious that is the Conservatives, both in terms of seats and votes. Nobody can argue with that. It might pain us deeply, but it's a fact. Nick squarely put the ball in David Cameron's court by saying that it was up to him to show that the Conservatives were capable of ...
I didn't stand for re-election to Lewisham Council yesterday, and I formally cease to be a Lewisham Liberal Democrat councillor on 10 May. We don't yet know who the new councillors for Lewisham Central ward will be. But whoever they are, they have my congratulations and my best wishes for the future. If they need any help or advice from me, they're welcome to get in touch. Or not, if they prefer :-) We're expecting the Mayoral and local Lewisham Council results after 8pm and 11pm respectively. I don't know what they will be but, from the General Election results, ...
Paul Uppal and the Conservatives gained Wolverhampton South West from Labour. Robin Lawrence and the Liberal Democrats gained 16.0% of the vote, an increase of 2.5% since the 2005 General Election.
Emma Reynolds and Labour held Wolverhampton North East. Colin Ross and the Liberal Democrats gained 13.5% of the vote, an increase of 1.9% since the 2005 General Election.
Pat McFadden and Labour held Wolverhampton South East. Councillor Richard Whitehouse and the Liberal Democrats gained 15% of the vote, an increase of 2.7% since the 2005 General Election.
A long night at the count for Gordon, where Malcolm Bruce was able to hold his seat in fine style: a tribute to a fine local MP. Equally Sir Robert Smith held West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine in the face of a determined challenge. However, across the country, though the people may have spoken, what they are saying has been ignored. The Liberal Democrats won many thousand more votes than last time, but we must content ourselves with a smaller Parliamentary representation. The defence of the First Past the Post electoral system is that is is supposed to deliver more stable ...
Fri 7th
12:55
The morning after the night before: 10 questions we need to answer (but maybe not today)
Here's a few to ponder ... Or perhaps best to sleep on them. 1. What happened to the predicted Lib Dem surge? Did people change their mind at the last minute? Did young people not turn out? Did floating voters turn their back on us? 2. How did the opinion polls get the Lib Dem share of the vote so badly wrong? They were pretty accurate in terms of the Labour/Tory vote, but all nine of the final polls put the Lib Dems in the 26-29% range when in fact we scored 23%. 3. What happened to our targeting strategy? ...
I've just worked through the list at http://twitter.com/#/list/markpack/libdem-mps updating it based on results so far. If you spot any errors or omissions do let me know.
Nick Clegg says the ball is in the Conservative court to try to form a government. The BBC report that a LibDem spokesman says Lab-LibDem talks are "going nowhere". I am delighted by these developments. I think Nick Clegg made the speech of his life outside Cowley Street this morning. It would be awful if there was a 'coalition of the losers' who then tried to force draconian spending cuts (even if delayed). Of course, we're not going to see a Con/LD coalition. It will be an agreement – sometimes called a "confidence and supply" agreement. But to be durable ...
I was really sorry that Susan Kramer was beaten by Zac Goldsmith's millions in Richmond Park last night. Enough said. But, of course, I am delighted that Edward Davey got back in with only a small dent to his majority. At the count last night I learned that Helen Whately's objective was to halve his majority of nearly 9000, but in the end it only dropped by just over 1400. She was a strong candidate - better than any the Conservatives have put up for many, many years - but Edward has done the work and it is obvious on ...
Thanks to Duncan Brack of the Liberal Democrat History Group for pulling this list together so near wins / misses spotted so far: NEAR MISSES Ashfield 192 (0.4%) Edinburgh South 316 (0.7%) Hampstead & Kilburn 799 (1.6%) Oldham East & Saddleworth 103 (0.2%) Sheffield Central 165 (0.4%) Swansea West 504 (1.4%) Camborne & Redruth 66 (0.2%) Chesterfield 549 (1.2%) Oxford West & Abingdon 176 (0.3%) Rochdale 889 (1.9%) Truro & Falmouth 435 (0.9%) ONLY JUST HELD/GAINED Bradford East 365 (0.9%) Mid Dorset & Poole North 269 (0.6%) Norwich South 310 (0.7%) Solihull 175 (0.3%) Wells 800 (1.4%)
It's a hung parliament. You already knew that of course. I've not slept very much. You may not already know – or indeed care about – that. Anyway. What the results show is that this country desperately needs electoral reform. The Liberal Democrats had a great showing though you wouldn't know if from the make-up of the Commons. The share of the vote for the Liberal Democrats went up – and the share of seats went down. Can you work that out? If you were a dictator, attempting to create a faux democracy that gave people the impression of having ...
Result in Neath: Peter Hain Labour 17172 Alun Llewelyn Plaid Cymru 7397 Frank Little Welsh Liberal Democrats 5535 Emmeline Owens Conservative 4847 Michael Green BNP 1342 James Bevan UK Independence Party 829 Total votes cast: 37,207. Turnout (rounded) 65% Result in Aberavon: Dr Hywel Francis Labour 16073 Keith Davies Welsh Liberal Democrat 5034 Caroline Jones Conservative 4411 Paul Nicholls-Jones Plaid Cymru 2198 Kevin Edwards BNP 1276 Andrew Tutton Independent 919 Captain Beany The Bean Party 558 Joe Callan UKIP 489 Total votes cast: 30988. Turnout (rounded) 61%
The results are almost all in and the commentators busy commentating themselves to a standstill but to me there is a clear conclusion from the election. David Cameron failed to persuade people to support a Conservative government. Now he will spin and declare that he was the winner and he will make grandiloquent statements about his right to rule but nothing will get away from the fact that he lost a 10 point poll lead, he failed convincingly to unseat an unpopular Prime Minister and his party and he failed to offer a sound programme for government. It is inherent ...
At least in the cold light of morning the misery is fairly widely distributed. For Labour, Gordon Brown has lost large numbers of seats, and is now in second place in votes and seats. For the Conservatives, although he has the most seats and the most votes, David Cameron has failed to secure a majority in the House of Commons. For the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg is left with fewer seats than before the election, only a few percentage points behind Labour in terms of votes but with only one-fifth Labour's share of seats. For the Murdoch press, their attempts ...
The general election results for Lewisham are in and there are no great surprises there. Let's start with some heart-felt congratulations to Heidi Alexander for winning in Lewisham East. Commiserations to our candidate Pete Pattison that did put up a great fight and would have made an excellent MP as well. The residents of Lewisham ...
Is Dave the new Dizzy? Sure none of you remember 1867, but I'm willing to bet a few of you know what happened then, when Benjamin 'Dizzy' Disraeli was running scared at the helm of a minority conservative government and bowed to pressure from the Whigs to introduce reform and enfranchise more people than ever, hoping that the gratitude of new voters would keep him in government at the next election. I find it one of the most exciting moments in British political history. And I'm really hoping we're about to get an action replay for the 21st century. Don't ...
The North East Cambridgeshire election results came through later than originally predicted, at around three in the morning at the Hudson Leisure Centre in Wisbech. They are as follows:Steve Barclay (Conservative) 26,862 Lorna Spenceley (Liberal Democrats) 10,437 Peter Roberts (Labour) 9,274 Robin Talbot (UKIP) 2,791 BNP 1,747 Debra Jordan (Independent) 566 English Democrat 387The Liberal Democrats have moved from third place to second, and from 17% of the vote to 20%. The Labour vote has collapsed from 30% in 2005 to 17% this time. I've congratulated Steve Barclay on his election as MP for our constituency, and hope that he'll ...
Here's my final guest post for Search Engine Watch on the 2010 general election: How Much of an Internet General Election Has it Been? This has been the TV debate election. That first TV debate turned the electoral race on its head and the subsequent two further debates kept the race in its topsy-turvy state. In that sense this hasn't been the Internet election; it's been the TV election. It's not even been a modern TV election, with the debates taking a concept first tried in Sweden in the 1950s and using it to produce three 90 minute TV shows, ...
The voters have spoken, and whilst the Conservatives are desperately trying to claim that they should form a government, the raw numbers tell us very little. Ros is in Cowley Street, as one might expect, awaiting the arrival of Nick. What happens next is as much a mystery to me as it is to anyone else at this stage. We wait and see. Meanwhile, I may be brushing up on my cooking and teamaking skills...
Apparently by 2,000 votes – if so, that will be a super-human effort given general disappointment of Lib Dem vote in London seats. More news as we get it ... Yes it's true: Lib Dem GAIN from Labour in Brent Central on a huge 11% swing. An absolutely fantastic effort from Sarah Teather, who selflessly put herself up for election in the harder of the two seats she could have contested. Much kudos. Sarah Teather Liberal Democrat 20,026 44.2% (+13.1) Labour 18,681 41.2% (-8.9) Conservative 5,068 11.2% (-1.9) But disappointment in Streatham, despite a 5.3% swing from Labour: Labour 20,037 ...
John Pugh 21 707 Porter (..Tory) 15 683 Conalty (Lab) 5 277) Durrance 749 Brilliant campaign. It did help to have a well respected hard working local champion in John Pugh. Sadly my colleague Simon Shaw became unwell and had to be taken to hospital and so missed the drama. This was a rout. It was easy to take the tactical decision that to win we had to attack in the Tory stronghold of Ainsdale where their candidate was a high profile councillor with a whopping majority. It was Simon who led the charge with ideas about how to develop ...
It is far too early to be drawing conclusions about yesterday's General Election and I am not about to do so, although I do have a short debate on Wednesday on the need for constitutional reform. Nick Clegg has just made a statement outside 4 Cowley Street in which he has acknowledged that the Conservatives secured the most votes and the most seats and that therefore it is up to them to prove that they are capable of running the country in the public interest. I believe that he is absolutely right to have said this. In doing so he ...
Courtesy The Guardian, here's the transcript of Nick's remarks: Last night was a disappointment for the Liberal Democrats. Even though more people voted for us than ever before, even though we had a higher proportion of the vote than ever before, it is of course a source of great regret to me that we have lost some really valued friends and colleagues and we have returned to parliament with fewer MPs than before. Many, many people during the election campaign were excited about the prospect of doing something different. It seems that, when they came to vote, many of them ...
In the darkest hour of the night, around 4am when Evan Harris lost his seat, someone reminded me of this Woody Allen quote: People get the government they deserve. Unfortunately, I get the government they deserve too. Oxford West and Abingdon was the only moment last night that I was actually scared. Not just grumblingly ...
John Barnett, Liberal Democrat candidate for Dundee West, and Dr Clive Sneddon, Liberal Democrat candidate for Dundee East would like to thank the 8518 voters who backed the Liberal Democrats across the two constituencies yesterday. Despite the potential for squeeze in both seats, the Liberal Democrat vote held up well and in Dundee West, the LibDems outpolled the Conservatives. Clive and John said, "We are very grateful to everyone who supported the Liberal Democrats yesterday - it is greatly appreciated."
Just a brief reminder that the next meeting of the Chorlton Civic Society is on Tuesday 11th May, 7.30pm at Chorlton Library
Considering that the Welsh Liberal Democrats went into this year with many commentators predicting that they would be lucky to hold one of their Welsh seats, yesterday's results were not too bad. However expectations change and naturally the party now needs to look at how it can build on what it achieved. A substantial increase in the Welsh Liberal Democrat majority in Ceredigion was matched by significant swings to the party in former Labour heartland seats. Holding Brecon & Radnorshire and Cardiff Central comfortably, the party ran a very close second in Swansea West and Newport East following hard-fought campaigns, ...
Redcar has a Lib Dem MP. Why isn't this front page news on the BBC and the Lib Dem website??? A swing of 25% to the Lib Dems from Labour should be shouted from the house tops, especially on a night that's brought so many disappointments elsewhere.Stockton North has the expected Labour MP, Alex Cunningham. Frank Cook's efforts to show that his huge majority was a personal vote failed
In no particular order: I am not going to commentate on what the LibDems should do. I have no idea. It seems clear that LD + Lab does not constitute a working majority. But they may well have more combined than the Conservatives, and certainly do in popular vote share. This is difficult. If the ...
Here's the list – let me know any omissions ... Lib Dem MPs: Danny Alexander, Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey Norman Baker, Lewes Alan Beith, Berwick-upon-Tweed Gordon Birtwistle, Burnley – NEWLY ELECTED Tom Brake, Carshalton and Wallington Annette Brooke, Mid Dorset and North Poole Jeremy Browne, Taunton Malcolm Bruce, Gordon Paul Burstow, Sutton and Cheam Lorely Burt, Solihull Vincent Cable, Twickenham Menzies Campbell, North East Fife Alistair Carmichael, Orkney and Shetland Nick Clegg, Sheffield Hallam Michael Crockart, Edinburgh West – NEWLY ELECTED Edward Davey, Kingston and Surbiton Tim Farron, Westmorland and Lonsdale Lynne Featherstone, Hornsey and Wood Green Don Foster, ...
Delighted that my local MP, John Leech has increased his majority to about 2000 votes. Sorry, I don't have accurate figures. Too tired after 30 straight hours awake, mostly on my feet. More analysis and info on the Chorlton ward count later.
Four simple words from Willie Rennie, but quite painful to read. He tweeted this just minutes after the declaration which saw his Dunfermline Dream come to an end - for the moment at least. I was watching the messages of support flood in on his Facebook page as I sat up on my sofa watching the results come in. I will admit to having shed a tear or several and looking at them again now and the new ones which appear makes me fill up all over again. It means so much to have these and he should be able ...
Edward Garnier (Cons) - 26,894 Zuffar Haq (Lib Dem) - 17,097 Kevin McKeever (Lab) - 6,981 Geoff Dickens (BNP)- 1,715 Marietta King (UKIP)- 1,462 David Ball (Eng Dem) - 568 Jeff Stephenson (Lab) - 228 From the Harborough Mail: Lib Dem supporters had been hopeful of overturning Mr Garnier's 4,000 majority in the lead up to polling day. The party has been slowly eating away at his majority since 1992. However it was not to be. Mr Haq, who received 17,097, up from the 16,644 votes achieved by the Lib Dems in 2005, said: "I would like to congratulate Edward ...
My congratulations to Gutto Bebb on winning the seat in Aberconwy this morning and my heartfelt thanks to my wife and family for all their support during my hard, honest, well fought campaign. I would also like to thank my agent Chris Humphreys and all my team, also the people of Aberconwy for the warmth on the doorstep, I believe that I am a better person for this experience and am committed to working for the people of Aberconwy. My particular thanks to the residents of Marl and Pensarn for their support.Once again Thanks to all for their support.
Fri 7th
09:00Opinion: Let's challenge Cameron's hype - this is NOT the Tories' "best result for 80 years"!
"It looks like the Conservatives have won more seats that we have for 80 years." – David Cameron That clip may well be played again and again today, as his spin doctors would have hoped when they wrote the line. But what would those words mean to you if you were not one of the political cogniscenti? When David Cameron stood up in his Oxfordshire constituency last night and said these words, he was surely attempting to spin the result as a great Conservative victory. They were hoping that many ordinary people would think the Tories had 'won more seats' ...
On polling day The Times ran this piece from me: Campaign high point: Receiving a phone call out of the blue on a Saturday afternoon from a tabloid journalist normally doesn't herald good news. But on Saturday 17th April it was someone ringing to check when the Liberal Democrats or their predecessors had last come out first in an opinion poll. Had the Liberal Democrat surge then simply slipped away that moment would have turned into a bitter-sweet memory, but instead over two more TV debates the Liberal Democrats remained at unprecedented levels of support and with a real chance ...
One of the frustrations of being elected to a supra-national parliament is that business does not grind to a halt simply because one of the twenty-seven member states has a national parliamentary election. So although I have been been as active as I could reasonably hope to be - campaigning in West Dorset, South East Cornwall, Newquay and St Austell, East Devon, Chippenham, Gloucester, Wells, Bridgwater, Somerton and Frome and Bristol NorthWest - I have been bogged down too much in European Parliamentary duties such as leading a visit of the delegation I chair to India, having to attend meetings ...
And so the fun continues into day two. After a mere 90 minutes sleep, I cannot sleep any more. So off we go... 1455 – regardless of what happens, I think all three leaders have been extremely dignified today. They look a bit humbled given the lack of ringing endorsement to any of them. "Chastened" ...
A lot of people have been hoping that this will be the last election we have tactical voting and "don't vote X as X can't win here." or "vote X so Y doesn't get in" but something perhaps more landmark has occurred. Hopefully we'll never again hear, "well if we look at Uniform National Swing" or ...
I am not sure they did !!At the time of writing the lib Dems are on 23% of the vote up on last time and the polsters have a 3% margin of error so that's around 26%.Wednesday saw polls of 27% that's about spot on if you ask me.It's to early to give any real comments but just a few thoughts of my ownThe present voting system does not allow for a clegg effect The Tories have learned how to fight our
8.00 am Here's where we're at: The Lib Dems have made SEVEN GAINS: Bradford East, Burnley, Norwich South, Eastbourne, Redcar, Solihull and Wells. And THIRTEEN LOSSES: Camborne and Redruth, Chesterfield, Cornwall South East, Harrogate & Knaresborough, Hereford & Herefordshire South, Montgomeryshire, Newton Abbot, Oxford West & Abingdon, Richmond Park, Romsey & Southampton North, Truro and Falmouth, Winchester and York Outer. The Tories are projected to score 37% (+4%) of the vote and win 308 (+98) MPs; Labour to score 30% (-6%) of the vote and win 260 (-89) seats; and the Lib Dems to score 23% (n/c) and win 53 ...
I fear the cartoonists are going cold on @nick_clegg - http://bit.ly/ccFRr4 # @chriskeating Shame those scented plugin devices for computers never took off. Get the smell of blood as you play shoot 'em up etc. was idea in reply to chriskeating # Haringey Council's message about its postal vote ballot paper mistakes - http://bit.ly/aog5uy #hwg #tottenham # Why YouTube doesn't get more agency money - and what they should do about it | Life. Then strategy - http://bit.ly/a0CENP # @davidangell Diamonds are a leader's best friend in reply to davidangell # @chriskeating Sentiment analysis tries to, but often finds it ...
Right, if we're going to speculate about what's going to happen, let's do it properly! As I largely outlined last week, when Parliament reconvenes there will likely be 644 MPs; the Speaker and the (at this stage 4) Sinn Fein members don't count and Thirsk and Malton won't have polled (which will have an effect for a brief period!) so a majority will be 323. On the current projections, we probably have the following groupings; Conservative - 306 DUP - 8 Independent Unionist - 1 RIGHT = 315 Labour - 259 SDLP - 3 LEFT = 262 Liberal Democrats - ...
Well I lost in Garston and Halewood. It's sort of a new seat so it's hard to make a hard and fast statement about the change in votes from last time. But it is true to say that Labour now has a large majority here. I came second. I loved taking part in the campaign. I loved meeting all the different people and talking about a range of interesting issues (I predict that next time e mail queries on policy issues will be even more significant) I would have loved to be MP for Garston and Halewood and I haven't ...
People are already summising that the Clegg bounce did not help the party make a breakthrough, it failed to see the party progress, and it disappeared all too quickly. To justify this they point to the number of seats the Lib Dems lost. But is that true. I don't think so. For myself, I have found people on the door to have been impressed by the Lib Dems, they have taken us seriously and they know more about us. But more important than anything else, consider where the Lib Dems would have been without the bounce. How many more seats ...
It has been a disappointing night for the Liberal Democrats with results going against us. With swings to us of 21% to us in Redcar and 17% in Ashfield. Now we wait with baited breath for the final results to come in and I can't really remember an election where the result is still in doubt even at this point. Today in West Lindsey, we now count the votes for your local councillors. Updates
I just want to congratulate Simon Wright on his wonderful victory in Norwich South last night (well, five O'Clock this morning). I had been helping in Norwich South for most of the last week, and spent polling day running the operation in Bowthorpe, Wensum and New Costessey, so am very pleased to have played my part. I knew, from twitter, that Simon must have been close to winning because the amount of personal offensive abuse being published on twitter by The Green party aimed at Simon Wright was utterly disgraceful. I hope those Greens think long and hard and will ...
Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat): 22151 Will Quince (Conservative): 15169 Jordan Newell (Labour): 5680 John Pitts (UKIP): 1350 Sidney Chaney (BNP): 705 Peter Lynn (Green): 694 Eddie Bone (English Democrats): 335 Garryck Noble (People's Party Essex): 35 Paul Shaw: 20 So, Bob's back for a fourth term, with an increased number of votes, majority and share of the vote. I've now been up for 24 ...
6.00 am Here's where we're at (and it's not pretty): The Lib Dems have made FOUR GAINS: Burnley, Norwich South, Eastbourne and Redcar. And ELEVEN LOSSES: Chesterfield, Cornwall South East, Harrogate & Knaresborough, Hereford & Herefordshire South, Montgomeryshire, Newton Abbot, Oxford West & Abingdon, Richmond Park, Romsey & Southampton North, Winchester and York Outer. The Tories are projected to score 37% (+4%) of the vote and win 308 (+98) MPs; Labour to score 30% (-6%) of the vote and win 260 (-89) seats; and the Lib Dems to score 23% (n/c) and win 53 (-9) MPs. 6.09 am Lib Dems' ...
I have just got back from the count in Plymouth Moor View and wanted to let you know the result. Labour's Alison Seabeck was re-elected to Parliament, with a reduced majority. I attracted 7,016 votes, so thank you to all of you. I congratulate Alison on her victory. Now... off to sleep!
Here in Bedfordshire Mid we had a good turnout of voters yesterday. It's been a pleasure to work with Lib Dem PPC Linda Jack these last few months in the run up to the general election. While we grew our Lib Dem share of vote, the Tory incumbent remains firmly seated, for now. Candidates Name Party Votes % +/- Nadine Dorries Conservative 28,815 (52.5%) +5.9% Linda Jack Liberal Democrat 13,663 (24.9%) +1.4% David Reeves Labour 8,108 (14.8%) -7.7% Bill Hall UK Independence Party 2,826 (5.1%) +2.4% Malcolm Bailey Green 773 (1.4%) -1.2% John Cooper English Democrats 712 (1.3%) +1.3% Majority ...
Well it didn't happen. We failed to win Blaydon constituency. To the 13,180 people who voted for me, thank you. Congratulations to my friend Ian Swales for winning Redcar from Labour with a sensational swing. As I said in my speech, the people round here have been very warm to me and we in the Liberal Democrats will continue to speak up for our vision for Britain and Blaydon. If you believe that Blaydon needs a change, ironically now is the time to get involved. If we are to get our message across we need more activists and support. Right ...
Yet another labout stallwart gone!
Fri 7th
04:59So we didn't win (result: http://cmld.org.uk/results/1711.html) but still 6,000 more votes than last...
So we didn't win (result: http://cmld.org.uk/results/1711.html) but still 6,000 more votes than last time and a tiny 0.05% swing to Con. Thank You everyone. General Election Results For Chelmsford (Stephen Robinson and Chelmsford Lib Dems) cmld.org.uk At the General Election in Chelmsford on 6th May 2010, 54596 votes were cast (approximately 70% of the total number of eligible voters) with the following result:
04.44 thank god, we managed to keep that christian moralist tory out of the house of commons! At least the campaign run by the local LibDem party decided NOT to focus on the obvious and instead, to fight a fair and clean one, a decision which was vindicated in their retention of the seat tonight.
04.38 What more can you say? She who was embroiled in the start of the expenses sleaze is now gone.
04.35 Dunbartonshire East – stays LibDem, well done Jo Swinson
5.55 am Here's that Lib Dem LOSS in Richmond Park on a 7% swing to the Tories: Conservative 29,461 49.7% (+10.1) Susan Kramer Liberal Democrat 25,370 42.8% (-3.8) Labour 2,979 5.0% (-4.2) 5.50 am Brighton Pavilion is a gain for the Greens' Caroline Lucas. 5.46 am Susan Kramer has LOST Richmond Park to the Tories' Zac Gldsmith. Lib Dems' Stehen Gilbert has HELD St Austell & Newquay. 5.42 am Terrific result for Nick Radford in Salisbury, but it's another NEAR MISS: Conservative 23,859 49.2% (+2.8) Nick Radford Liberal Democrat 17,893 36.9% (+10.0) Labour 3,690 7.6% (-11.0) Vince Cable HOLDS Twickenham ...
'Things are really hard to call' . This was Margaret Becket's analysis of the election at 0416hrs this morning. The core Labour vote, as demonstrated in Redcar, is not following the party line. 'Sweeping analysis' is not wise she suggested, and 'it sounds like we are heading for a hung parliament' she further added. Scutiny of the ...
Wow – as I was on air, listening to Peter Hain, tweets came through that Redcar was a LibDem gain. I had looked at this seat earlier and pretty much discounted it from my list – there was a 20%+ swing required and this seemed impossible. Well, against all odds, and to the surprise of everyone ...
Someone asked me why have a fairer voting system? Conservative 156 5,126,079 35.5 Labour 122 3,948,122 27.4 Liberal Democrat 23 3,190,208 22.1 Well there is your answer. We are less than 800,000 votes behind Labour, and yet we have only 23 sears, as opposed to their 122. Enough said!
Name Party Votes % +/- Phillip Lee Conservative 27,327 52.4 +2.5 Ray Earwicker Liberal Democrat 11,623 22.3 +4.5 John Piasecki Labour 8,755 16.8 -11.1 Murray Barter UK Independence Party 2,297 4.4 +0.9 Mark Burke British National Party 1,253 2.4 +2.4 David Young Green 825 1.6 +1.6 Dan Haycocks Scrap Members Allowances 60 0.1 +0.1 Majority 15,704 30.1 Turnout 52,140 67.8 +5.1 Well done to Phillip Lee who becomes the new MP for Bracknell with an increase majority for the Conservatives of 30%. Labour are the only party to lose votes by a massive 11.1% with Liberal Democrats gaining 4.5% and ...
Rather a mix bag of results across the country. Here in Epping Forest local campaigner Ann Haigh has moved the Liberal Democrats into second place with a swing from the Conservatives. The full results are:Conservative 25,148Ann Haigh (Liberal Democrat) 10,017Labour 6,641British National Party 1,982UK Independence Party 1,852Green 659English Democrats 285
4.23 am Horrible news: Lib Dems' Evan Harris LOSES seat of Oxford West & Abingdon to Tories on a 6.9% swing: Conservative 23,906 42.3% (+9.6) Evan Harris Liberal Democrat 23,730 42.0% (-4.1) Labour 5,999 10.6% (-5.2) Malcolm Bruce HOLDS Gordon. 4.19 am Lib Dems' Paul Holmes LOSES Chesterfield. Bob Russell HOLDS Chesterfield, 6,982 majority. 4.14 am Fantastic result for Tom Brake in Carshalton & Wallington, with a 4.3% swing from Tory to Lib Dem: Tom Brake Liberal Democrat 22,180 48.3 +7.9 Conservative 16,920 36.8 -0.6 Labour 4,015 8.7 -8.6 More good news (this is all relative, I realise): Danny Alexander ...
An interesting day and night so far. Time for bed now but I think I need to tell you more about today at length! Stay tuned.
Mixed picture at the moment. Some bad news for LDs in failing to gain seats like Durham Central and Guildford (where I have helped out before).Labour holding Tooting might suggest that the Tories may struggle in some of their targets although the average swung so far is pointing towards a possible small majority for them.The picture will be much clearer in the next couple of hours. Sent from my iPhone
1.40 AM - Just been hearing from a Conservative councillor here in Bradford a few local predictions fresh from the count; Marsha Singh and Gerry Sutcliffe to hold West and South for Labour, David Ward to win East for the LDs (go David!), Phil Davies to hold Shipley comfortably and Kris Hopkins to take Keighley for the Tories. Horse's mouth, folks... 1.42 AM - Adrian Sanders holds Torbay, 1.1 swing to LDs from Tories. You were right in your confidence, matgb! 1.55 AM - rather disappointing result for LDs in Guildford; Tory hold, 6.5% swing 2.05 AM - Minister for ...
Steve Webb has been elected as the first MP for the new constituency of Thornbury and Yate with a majority of 7116 over the Conservatives, taking just over half the vote. Full results: Thomas Beacham (Independents Federation UK) 126 Anthony Clements (Independent) 58 Roxanne Egan (Labour) 3385 Jenny Knight (UKIP) 1709 Matthew Riddle (Conservative) 17916 Steve Webb (Liberal Democrat) 25032 Congratulations to Steve and all his team.
2.55 am More bad news ... Lib Dems have failed to take Swansea West and Liverpool Wavertree and Totnes. We have HELD Taunton. And there's a recount in Ashfield. 2.50 am Jo Swinson has held Dunbartonshire East. Confirmation of the LIB DEM LOSS in Harrogate and Knaresborough, with a large 9.1% swing from Lib Dem to Tory: Conservative 24,305 45.7% (+9.8) Claire Kelley Liberal Democrat 23,266 43.8% (-8.4) Labour 3,413 6.4% (-2.7) 2.47 am The Tories' Jeremy Hunt holds in Surrey South West, with an 8.6% swing from Lib Dem to Tory. 2.43 am Chris Huhne HOLDS Eastleigh. Confirmation of ...
I'm delighted to be the first Member of Parliament for 'Thornbury & Yate' - indeed at one stage this evening I was the first Lib Dem MP in the country! The full result was: Steve Webb (Lib Dem) 25032 Matthew Riddle (Con) 17916 Roxanne Egan (Lab) 3385 Jenny Knight (UKIP) 1709 It was a great honour to get more than fifty per cent of the vote for the third General Election in a row. I think an hour or two of sleep may be called for!
Fri 7th
00:42It's been a long haul and now I'm off to the count for the result. Thanks for the loads of emails, t...
It's been a long haul and now I'm off to the count for the result. Thanks for the loads of emails, texts and wall posts in support.
Two people outside Clegg's house on BBC – apparently about 150 people where waiting towards the polling close time, waiting to vote! They where unable to vote. They had tried to vote numerous times, but the polling station was constantly busy and there was always a queue when they went to vote. Confusion as to the ...
This is a strange evening for me our count starts tomorrow morning and the last time that I missed a count was in 1983 when my second child was born. Since then I have watched boxes being opened at every count. This means that I have not watched BBC or ITV as the results came in and here I am no listening to Andrew Marr follow David Cameron. The exit poll is telling me that there will be 59 Liberal Democrat MPs. This is really disappointing as the polls have also told me that our 20% has risen to 32% ...
1.25 am Disappointing result for the Tories in Vale of Clwyd, where they fail to gain from Labour with a swing of only 3.6%. Intriguing results in Wales: Plaid failed to gain Ynes Mon from Labour, but did take Arfon. Hearing of Lib Dem holds in Yeovil (David Laws) and NE Fife (Ming Campbell) – but Labour have held on in Wrexham, a hoped-for gain. 1.21 am Tweet from Nigel Ashton of a likely Lib Dem hold in Southport: We are confident of holding Southport but the result is hours away And interesting news from Ashfield via The Guardian: Gloria ...
