UK 2015 General Election

[Halo]

So, for those of you who follow British politics, what do you think of the General Election results?

For those of you who don't but have a basic idea of the situation, a quick rundown:

• The expectation was for a hung parliament, with a very close race. There was doubt that even a coalition government would be able to form a majority.

• Despite this, the Conservatives have somehow gained a narrow majority government, with 331 out of 650 seats.

• Labour only gained 232 seats, and as a result Ed Miliband has stepped down as head of the party (though he did win his seat.) Among the casualties for Labour were Ed Balls (Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer), Douglas Alexander (Shadow Foreign Secretary and election campaign leader), and Jim Murphy (the leader for Scottish Labour), all of whom lost their seats.

• The Lib Dems have been utterly decimated, losing 47 seats compared to the 2010 election, leaving them only 8 seats. Nick Clegg retained his seat, but is stepping down as head of the party.

• The very left-wing Scottish National Party have won nearly every seat in Scotland (56 out of 59) in an insane landslide victory.

• Nigel Farage, head of the right-wing UK Independence Party, failed to gain his seat, being narrowly beat out by the Conservative candidate. He, too, is stepping down as head of his party.

So we've seen three major party leaders step down, the SNP take almost the whole of Scotland, and the Conservatives come out with a majority. This is, in my view, genuinely the most exciting British politics has been in a looooonnnngggg time. :D Would have loved to see Farage in the House of Commons though, would've been fucking hilarious.


EDIT: I'm particularly interested in hearing people's opinions on non-First Past the Post voting systems, considering these statistics (particularly the UKIP and SNP ones):

Conservatives - 36.9% of vote -> 50.9% of seats
Labour - 30.4% of vote -> 35.7% of seats
UKIP - 12.6% of vote -> 0.2% of seats
Lib Dems - 7.9% of vote -> 1.2% of seats
SNP - 4.7% of vote -> 8.6% of seats
Green - 3.8% of vote -> 0.2% of seats

In my view, FPTP works well in a two-party system by ensuring a stronger government, but in a multi-party system the benefits may well not be worth the sacrifice of democratic principle. While I'm undecided on my view, I'd certainly like to see it addressed by the current government and brought up in public discussion. However, there actually was a referendum on this in 2011, and people overwhelmingly voted to keep FPTP. Is it right to push the issue again so soon, even if the political climate has changed dramatically?


[BCOLOR=#ffffff](Note: I've put the prefix as "Discussion", but feel free to oppose others' opinions. I didn't use "Debate" because this is mainly for sharing one's own opinions rather than trying to outdo one another, but naturally sharing one's opinions includes disagreement and questioning to a limited extent as well.)[/BCOLOR]

 

[unanun]

Aaaaaand just like Canada, the complaints about proportional representation immediately begin.

 

[Asmodeus]

Yeah, First Past the Post is much better.

60% of people hate you, but those 60% are divided into two groups of 30%. NO WORRIES! You got 40%! So you win!

 

[Jorick]

I don't usually follow British politics, but I've seen a few things about this and listened to some commentary. Sounds like it wasn't so much that the Conservatives won due to any merit of their own, but rather that Labour and the Liberal Democrats both shot themselves in the feet whilst the SNP just utterly dominated in Scotland and took tons of seats from them. The Lib Dems seem to have gotten utterly smashed in large part thanks to breaking their promise to oppose any college tuition hikes, because then college aged folks around the country went on a massive campaign against them that apparently massacred them. Labour apparently got slapped down because of foolish moves like Miliband trying to pander to the Muslim voters by promising to make "Islamophobia" an aggravated crime, AKA pushing away voters who like having freedom of speech and anyone with xenophobic leanings. The Conservatives just didn't piss anyone off too badly, so they picked up seats that the others lost. It's rather amusing.

Also, it's really neat seeing how things work in another country's political system. Elections in the United States has a lot more shouting and mud slinging (at least so far as I can tell), but the actual process is bland. It's just the two big parties fighting it out with basically nobody else standing a chance on the national level. It's so very boring.

 

[Dervish]

There's actually a position called a Shadow Chancellor? I hope they're a wizard.

 

[Asmodeus]

We have a Shadow Cabinet too.

 

[Dervish]

I approve. Politics would be much more interesting if you could shoot fireballs at the opposition.

 

[Asuras]

I approve. Politics would be much more interesting if you could shoot fireballs at the opposition.

Your points both seem pertinent. We must settle this by others means.

 

[Dervish]

Your points both seem pertinent. We must settle this by others means.

I mean, there's a Ministry of Magic (Hogwarts is real, m'kay). Let's just skip the sneaky crap and just have wizarding duels.

 

[BrattyCommissar]

I mean, there's a Ministry of Magic (Hogwarts is real, m'kay). Let's just skip the sneaky crap and just have wizarding duels.

Hogwarts isn't real, man. If we want some real hype ass politics, we need to get them into the squared circle and do some good old WWE style russling for the title.

Vince needs to push politicians for Summer Slam.

 

[Asmodeus]

And they say that the Youth have become distant from Politics.

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

There's actually a position called a Shadow Chancellor? I hope they're a wizard.

 

[PureKor]

I knew that David Cameron will win again..>_>

I don't know if I should be happy or not, considering that himself said on various occasions that us the immigrants and especially ( Romanians and Bulgarians ) are stealing the British people's jobs and such.

By Neigel we've been called names such as " humans trash " and so on..

I think I am a little happy that Cameron won this election. I just hope things will get better. For the sake of Great Britan and the so many immigrants who live and work here.

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

Assuming British Politicans are the same as most countries?
I wouldn't hold my breath for much change to be honest.
The pattern of: Make promises -> Get elected -> Break Promises, is even more predictable than a Michael Bay movie at this point.

 

[Hecatoncheires]

There's gonna be plenty changing in the next five years. Question is if it's going to be for the better.

Britain's Universities are going to take a beating. Under a Conservative majority, tuition fees are gonna keeping going up. The net result? Less students. Less interesting courses and modules offered, because there's no market for them. It'll affect the staff and teachers of these institutions, too. Less students means they'll need less teaching staff. This will affect the up-and-coming generation of British academics, the guys with ideas and actual teaching skills who haven't yet been properly established in the field: they'll be the ones losing their jobs because they don't have tenure yet. Meanwhile the old fossils with tenure, the ones who don't teach, don't publish anything but can't easily be gotten rid of because they got their tenure somewhere back in the fucking Jurassic Period? They're not going anywhere.

More of the NHS is going to be privatised. This has already been happening over the last five years, but the Tories couldn't get away with everything they wanted to because they were in coalition. Now, with a majority, assuming Cameron can keep his backbenchers happy? It's open fucking season, chaps.

There's gonna be referendums for days. The Conservatives promised an in/out referendum on the UK's membership of the EU, which our neighbours across in Europe are just going to love. I can potentially see a lot of the north (Scotland, Northern Ireland, North of England) voting to stay, whilst the south votes to leave. Speaking of referendums? Those mad SNP gains in Scotland could well be the spearhead for another fucking vote on whether Scotland should stay in the UK. I'm already seeing calls for it, and its only been a few days.

Gonna be an interesting five years, anyway.

 

[Hellis]

Vince needs to push politicians for Summer Slam

Oh god don't give him an ideas. The celerberty fights are bad enough during wrestlemania

 

[Hellis]

soooo @Grumpy
Sounds like your conservatives are set to fuck you guys the same way our Moderates did. Good luck man.

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

Oh god don't give him an ideas. The celerberty fights are bad enough during wrestlemania

But we could get even more remix's of this. :3

 

[Brovo]

The Conservatives just didn't piss anyone off too badly, so they picked up seats that the others lost.

Victory by default. It's a sad day when the party that wins is the one that mostly shut its stupid mouth.

soooo @Grumpy
Sounds like your conservatives are set to fuck you guys the same way our Moderates did. Good luck man.

To be fair, Labour wanted to fuck freedom of speech and the other parties appear to have simply had no real ability to compete against the Cons in the first place. So it's the least of all evils situation from my perspective.

 

[Halo]

I don't usually follow British politics, but I've seen a few things about this and listened to some commentary. Sounds like it wasn't so much that the Conservatives won due to any merit of their own, but rather that Labour and the Liberal Democrats both shot themselves in the feet whilst the SNP just utterly dominated in Scotland and took tons of seats from them. The Lib Dems seem to have gotten utterly smashed in large part thanks to breaking their promise to oppose any college tuition hikes, because then college aged folks around the country went on a massive campaign against them that apparently massacred them. Labour apparently got slapped down because of foolish moves like Miliband trying to pander to the Muslim voters by promising to make "Islamophobia" an aggravated crime, AKA pushing away voters who like having freedom of speech and anyone with xenophobic leanings. The Conservatives just didn't piss anyone off too badly, so they picked up seats that the others lost. It's rather amusing.

Also, it's really neat seeing how things work in another country's political system. Elections in the United States has a lot more shouting and mud slinging (at least so far as I can tell), but the actual process is bland. It's just the two big parties fighting it out with basically nobody else standing a chance on the national level. It's so very boring.

From my personal perspective, you're half-right about most stuff, but that's not exactly how it played out.

The core reason for the majority Conservative vote certainly was certainly not that they haven't pissed anyone off. They've pissed nigh on everyone but the wealthiest people in the country off. The reason was that lots of people view the left-leaning parties' economic policies as fiscally irresponsible at a time in which we're in horrific debt and are still running a deficit, and were thus absolutely terrified of a Labour-SNP coalition getting into power. Many voted Conservative as a "necessary evil" to avoid that, including myself. Their policies are brutal and harsh, and in my opinion are targeting the wrong areas, but they are a safe and secure method of cutting the deficit and fixing the economy.

The Lib Dems' decimation was largely because people were so scared of the financial policies of a Labour-SNP coalition that they somewhat-tactically voted Conservative instead, as only the Conservatives could challenge Labour in England and Wales. The Lib Dems' failure to capitalise on their place in the coalition to keep their campaign promises was, in my opinion, a smaller contributor, because many people realise that being the significantly weaker party in the coalition they couldn't do much, and they actually kept the Conservatives in check in many cases.

Labour shot themselves in the foot in two ways:
Firstly, by not campaigning hard enough in Scotland, not realising how influential the SNP have become since the independence referendum. They've always relied on Scotland being a stronghold for them, and losing that beheaded them.
Secondly, Labour actually said they would never coalition with the SNP, so their biggest failure was in the fact that voters in England and Wales didn't believe them. They don't view Ed Miliband or the Labour party as trustworthy.
I have no idea where you got the "Islamophobia" stuff being their biggest mistake from. ._. People with xenophobic leanings would never vote left-wing anyway, most likely.
But more than anything, it was the SNP that beheaded Labour, not anything Labour did themselves. Not just in taking all the Scottish seats, though. More importantly, the SNP very publicly and aggressively pushed for a coalition with Labour, despite Labour's protests, which scared the shit out of many people and is what caused the Conservative swing. Of course, this is exactly what the SNP wanted - to be utterly dominant in Scotland, but with the Conservatives in power in Westminster so they have a scapegoat for anything that goes wrong and an excuse to push for another referendum. They played it perfectly.

Aaaaaand just like Canada, the complaints about proportional representation immediately begin.

And is it unreasonable? I don't think so. The UK voted to change to the FPTP system at a time when British politics was much more a two-party system. Now that that is no longer the case, FPTP is causing some serious issues. The SNP have 50% of the Scottish vote, but nearly 100% of the seats. They also have something like a third of the number of votes UKIP got, but UKIP has one seat and the SNP have 56. FPTP doesn't work as well when we have multi-party politics as we do now, even if it does hopefully create a stronger government.

I don't know if I should be happy or not, considering that himself said on various occasions that us the immigrants and especially ( Romanians and Bulgarians ) are stealing the British people's jobs and such.

By Neigel we've been called names such as " humans trash " and so on..

Source for both these claims? Really cannot believe Cameron would say such a thing, not in those terms at least, though he obviously will have addressed the immigration problem. Nigel Farage is anti-immigration, but I don't believe he is a racist and also strongly doubt that he's stupid enough to say something that strong in public even if he is.

There's gonna be plenty changing in the next five years. Question is if it's going to be for the better.

Britain's Universities are going to take a beating. Under a Conservative majority, tuition fees are gonna keeping going up. The net result? Less students. Less interesting courses and modules offered, because there's no market for them. It'll affect the staff and teachers of these institutions, too. Less students means they'll need less teaching staff. This will affect the up-and-coming generation of British academics, the guys with ideas and actual teaching skills who haven't yet been properly established in the field: they'll be the ones losing their jobs because they don't have tenure yet. Meanwhile the old fossils with tenure, the ones who don't teach, don't publish anything but can't easily be gotten rid of because they got their tenure somewhere back in the fucking Jurassic Period? They're not going anywhere.

More of the NHS is going to be privatised. This has already been happening over the last five years, but the Tories couldn't get away with everything they wanted to because they were in coalition. Now, with a majority, assuming Cameron can keep his backbenchers happy? It's open fucking season, chaps.

There's gonna be referendums for days. The Conservatives promised an in/out referendum on the UK's membership of the EU, which our neighbours across in Europe are just going to love. I can potentially see a lot of the north (Scotland, Northern Ireland, North of England) voting to stay, whilst the south votes to leave. Speaking of referendums? Those mad SNP gains in Scotland could well be the spearhead for another fucking vote on whether Scotland should stay in the UK. I'm already seeing calls for it, and its only been a few days.

Gonna be an interesting five years, anyway.

Yeah, it's gonna be a brutal five years under the Tories, but better than ending up like fricking Greece. Gonna dispute the NHS point, though - while I don't doubt it will be more privatised in five years than now, there's some serious muddying of the facts occurring around this. Over the last five years, NHS privatisation has gone up from 4% to 6%. Not exactly the ridiculous jump people were making it out to be. And if it's 8% in another five years, sure, I won't like that, but again, it's not exactly horrific and hopefully will be remedied by the inevitable voting-in of a left-wing party once we're more prosperous.

It'll really, really piss me off if the SNP push for another referendum within the decade, with the exception of if the UK votes to leave the EU and Scotland wants to stay. Of course, despite Sturgeon's bullshit rhetoric, the SNP only give a fuck about Scotland and only really care about getting independence, so I have no doubt we'll be seeing another referendum demand sooner rather than later,