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BBC News reports that the Conservatives have defied pre-election polls and all the exit polls to win an overall majority in the House of Commons. The race was thought to be much closer than the final results have shown, with many predicting either another coalition government or possibly a minority Conservative government being formed.
The Conservatives made gains in England and Wales and are forecast by the BBC to secure 331 seats in the Commons, giving them a slender majority. Sources say [Labour leader] Ed Miliband is expected to stand down after Labour was all but wiped out by the [Scottish National Party] in Scotland. [Liberal Democrat] leader Nick Clegg has already said he will quit, with his party set to be reduced from 57 to eight MPs. [United Kingdom Independence Party] leader Nigel Farage is also quitting after he failed to win Thanet South, losing by nearly 2,800 votes to the Conservatives.
The Conservatives have taken 331 of the 650 seats available. However, when Sinn Fein's continued boycott of Westminster is taken into account, along with the four seats they current hold, 324 is enough for a practical majority. An overall turnout of 66% is expected, marginally up on the previous general election in 2010.
Shortly after the results of the exit polls were revealed, Lord Ashdown, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, stated in a live interview on the BBC that he would "eat his hat" if the predicted losses for the Liberal Democrats came true. The poll showed the Lib Dems losing 45 seats - in the end they lost 47. Lord Ashdown mentioned shortly after he made the statement that he had received through Twitter ten offers of hats if he didn't have one of his own.
For those of us not familiar with UK politics, what are the views of the Conservatives we should be concerned about (if any)? How will their viewpoints affect the world political stage and/or the technology world?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by janrinok on Saturday May 09 2015, @08:33AM
The Conservative's have tried over the last 5 years, whilst in a coalition government, to introduce more pervasive surveillance - electronic, physical, and imagery - but have been prevented from doing so by the coalition partners. With them out of the way, I guess that we will see another attempt in the next 6 months to pass the legislation through parliament before any of their back-benchers start stirring up trouble. They will probably be successful in the House of Commons, but will still have the same resistance from the House of Lords. My own guess is that they will be successful overall but we will have to wait and see.
So I would expect to see ISPs and telecoms being told to record more and more data for use by the security and intelligence services, more attempts to control 'undesirable' web sites, and the usual political attempts to control the entire internet because they think that they can, despite the fact that they have been repeatedly been told by those who know better that the latter is not possible with the internet as we know it. So maybe - at the extreme end of the spectrum - we will see the beginnings of the great UK firewall. <sarcasm>We have to 'protect our freedom and the children', of course.</sarcasm>
It is a shame, because in most other respects they are the only party that appears to have a clue about how to solve the huge debts that were built up in previous years despite the fact that it is a bitter pill to swallow.
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Saturday May 09 2015, @08:35AM
(Score: 5, Informative) by turgid on Saturday May 09 2015, @11:13AM
It is a shame, because in most other respects they are the only party that appears to have a clue about how to solve the huge debts that were built up in previous years despite the fact that it is a bitter pill to swallow.
They've been a bit creative with the truth [newstatesman.com] regarding their handling of the economy.
And this amazing "recovery" is the weakest since WWII, and is largely due to a house-price bubble caused by under-supply, and over-demand from foreign investors and by-to-letters.
Meanwhile, "hard-working" people are priced out of buying their own homes and can barely afford to rent.
And don't get me started on that decent, proper Christian Irritable Duncan Syndrome's [wikipedia.org] Bedroom Tax [shelter.org.uk] and his persecution of the sick, disabled and needy.
Scotland has spoken up for a fairer, progressive society [independent.co.uk]. England seems intent on returning to a Dickensian society. And just look at the number of xenophobic, selfish anti-gay rights [bbc.co.uk] bigots we have who voted for UKIP.
When the promised referendum on membership of the EU comes, I fear for my job, and thousands of my colleagues.
Oh, and the man who promised the greenest government ever [theguardian.com] made fracking exempt from many environmental and planning laws [newstatesman.com]. Former Tory Chancellor Nigel Lawson is a climate change denier [telegraph.co.uk] and trots out the old left-wing-BBC-bias nonsense about his inability to get his message across,
More reasons the Tories are a shower of rotters: Theresa May, George Osborne, Michael Gove.
"Teachers are the enemy of promise." -- Michael Gove when Secretary of State for Education. He has ruined the state education system in England and Wales. He has set it back 50 years and it will take decades to recover. The Tories brought in a bizarre system of independently-run state-funded schools, which has allowed religious [theguardian.com] sectarianism [humanism.org.uk] to flourish and standards to plummet [secularism.org.uk].
To conclude my rant, the Conservatives continue to increase the involvement of the private sector (i.e. outsourcing to their rich friends) in the National Health Service [bbc.co.uk] which is paid for out of the public purse - our National Insurance and Income Tax contributions. As I said in a previous post, it is Tory ideology that public money is better spent giving profits to companies than in helping the sick.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday May 09 2015, @12:29PM
(Score: 2) by turgid on Saturday May 09 2015, @12:38PM
Well, it is a story about politics.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Insightful) by janrinok on Saturday May 09 2015, @01:18PM
Very true :)
I was replying to the question in TFA which asked "How will their viewpoints affect the world political stage and/or the technology world?".
I have nothing against your political views but debating politics seems to be an utter waste of time in fora such as these, especially, as there are as many valid political viewpoints as there are individuals eligible to vote.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 10 2015, @05:09PM
With the modifier "valid", there are far less viewpoints than voters. "[Niggers/Kikes/Gypsies/Fags/Women/Non-Christians/etc] should be [executed/enslaved/imprisoned/exiled/etc]", for example, is not a valid viewpoint because it hinges upon the concept that humans aren't human unless they have specific traits, an idea that is factually incorrect. There are many viewpoints, but far less valid ones.
(Score: 4, Informative) by hash14 on Saturday May 09 2015, @04:35PM
<sarcasm>We have to 'protect our freedom and the children', of course.</sarcasm>
Don't forget that they also must do it in order to enforce our Most Holy intellectual property laws!
Over recent years, I have seen that the United States is a very cowardly nation, tossing away civil liberties in the name of keeping people safe, though really all it does is preserve established interests. But England puts them to deep shame in this respect. And not only that, but France and Canada are going the same way as well. It's extremely disappointing to watch developed nations "undevelop" themselves under the pretence of preventing any Bad thing from happening Ever.