UK General Election 2015

[Longy]

I did see earlier on William hill I think betting on whether there would be Internet voting in 2020 election. Seems to have been removed now.

Think it was 1/3 yes 9/4 no.

[The Camel]

Although I can't think of a single policy where I agree with Farage, I'd kind of like him to get a seat, as I find him one of the most entertaining speakers around. I watched his speech to his party conference last year and really enjoyed it. Speeches by Miliband/Cameron/Clegg are pretty snoresville in comparison. Mind you, Suzanne Evans has been performing well this week.

I'd also really like Caroline Lucas to keep her seat. She has also performed really well imo. Can't say the same for Natalie Bennett though.

Why did Caroline Lucas stand down as Green Party leader?

She's a 10000 times more impressive politician than Bennett

[MintTrav]

Although I can't think of a single policy where I agree with Farage, I'd kind of like him to get a seat, as I find him one of the most entertaining speakers around. I watched his speech to his party conference last year and really enjoyed it. Speeches by Miliband/Cameron/Clegg are pretty snoresville in comparison. Mind you, Suzanne Evans has been performing well this week.

I'd also really like Caroline Lucas to keep her seat. She has also performed really well imo. Can't say the same for Natalie Bennett though.

Why did Caroline Lucas stand down as Green Party leader?

She's a 10000 times more impressive politician than Bennett

I've heard them give two reasons.

One is that having a different leader allows them to build two national profiles instead of one, as Lucas already gets that by being an MP.

The second is that Brighton is still a marginal Green/Labour seat and she has been able to spend the whole campaign in the constituency rather than having to spend time on the national election. The local Greens haven't helped since they took control of the Council, causing the bin collectors to go on strike, resulting in rubbish being left uncollected on the streets, and being blamed for traffic problems. There is likely to be a lot of split voting, with people supporting Lucas but voting against the Greens in the Council election.

[cambridgealex]

Seems like those issues will definitely be worth getting sorted / overlooking to get millions more people voting.

[Claw75]

Although I can't think of a single policy where I agree with Farage, I'd kind of like him to get a seat, as I find him one of the most entertaining speakers around. I watched his speech to his party conference last year and really enjoyed it. Speeches by Miliband/Cameron/Clegg are pretty snoresville in comparison. Mind you, Suzanne Evans has been performing well this week.

I'd also really like Caroline Lucas to keep her seat. She has also performed really well imo. Can't say the same for Natalie Bennett though.

Why did Caroline Lucas stand down as Green Party leader?

She's a 10000 times more impressive politician than Bennett

At the start of the campaign I was very seriously considering voting Green - once I'd heard a couple of interviews with Natalie Bennett though I just couldn't take them seriously, and daresay theier choice of leader has probably cost them a pretty large chunk of the vote at a time when a considerable portion of the country are looking for a viable alternative to the mainstream parties.

Edit - was going to edit so my post didn't solely consist of the longest sentence ever, but too much hassle on phone. Whole post is three sentences now anyway.

[AndrewT]

Online voting would be too risky in terms of fraud. Even if it wasn't, there would always be the suspicion that it might, as no one can 'see' the votes.

As far as voters are concerned, it is actually quite reassuring seeing boxes of bit of paper being emptied in some sports hall on TV, knowing that if there's any discrepancy or problem then, well, they can get counted again. Fraud in the current system doesn't scale - one person couldn't do much (maybe vote a couple of times by pretending to be someone they knew wouldn't be voting?).

Even postal voting is dodgy - there were cases in Asian communities of people asking for postal votes then the blank votes were collected up by someone to be filled in 'correctly'.

[Teacake]

Tory— 282
Lab— 272
SNP— 48
LD— 26
DUP— 8
SDLP— 3
Ukp— 2
Oth— 9

[DungBeetle]

There's certainly going to be a massive overlap between BNP/UKIP voters.

The rise in the BNP wasn't all from racist thugs, it became an umbrella under which certain disenfranchised white working classes could feel as though they were being listened to. These people would previously have voted Tory or Labour when those parties were more inclusive but both are now very much middle class/posh.

UKIP fulfils that role now - the thuggish element of the BNP would now be involved in the EDL/Britain First groups. It'll be interesting to see if the constituencies where BNP polled highly last time are ones in which UKIP outperform elsewhere.

This.  

Fascists were frst of all beaten on the street, and forced to enter politics they were then dismantled politically.  

Interestingly despite being a bunch of rabid racists in terms of actual policy BNP were more left wing than Labour.  

Indeed.  I am amazed when I hear numerous people refer to bnp as right wing economically.

[MintTrav]

My boss told me today that she got two postal votes. For some reason, one of them had her husband's name on it, but she filled them both in and sent them off anyway.

She's in overall charge of the count for two constituencies tonight - gotta hope she was joking........

[RickBFA]

Exit polls put Tories on 316, Labour 239

[Longy]

Remarkable exit poll.

[AndrewT]

Wow - that exit poll is incredible.

Tories higher than any pol suggested.

Lib Dems nearly wiped out.

SNP winning all but one seat

[ripple11]

WOW

[Woodsey]

Exit polls put Tories on 319

Won't assume too much yet but a HOOOOOOLLLLLLDDDDD would be nice  

[ripple11]

SNP +LAB message got through